Aqua Analytics New Zealand has been appointed by Tiaki Wai to deliver active leak detection services across the metropolitan Wellington drinking water network, supporting the new regional water organisation’s programme to reduce water loss and get more out of every litre treated.
The work covers the networks serving Wellington and Porirua, around 1,295 km of ageing drinking water pipeline. Tiaki Wai publicly reports an average water loss rate of 37 per cent across the 2025/26 financial year, and its crews fixed more than 8,100 leaks across all four metropolitan council areas in that period.
“Finding leaks before they surface is one of the ways we get ahead of the backlog, rather than chasing it once it has surfaced,” said Rob Walker, Team Leader Water Loss Management at Tiaki Wai.
Finding the leaks that never reach the surface
Most water lost from a reticulated network never appears on the road. It seeps from joints, service connections and small circumferential cracks, and it can run for years without a single customer call.
Aqua Analytics works across Tiaki Wai’s network of district metered areas, using minimum night flow data to rank zones by how much water they are losing, then surveying the worst of them with correlators, ground microphones and acoustic loggers. What comes back is not a suspicion but a mark on the ground with a flow estimate against it, so repair crews dig once and dig in the right place.
“Our focus is on the value of proactive leak detection to the region’s water resilience and security,” Mr Walker said.
Working as one team with Tiaki Wai
A located leak is only worth the water it puts back. Each round of acoustic network survey is planned around where Tiaki Wai needs recovery most, and the leaks handed over carry the flow estimates that let the biggest losses be repaired first. Night flow in those zones is then remeasured to confirm what the round actually returned, and the next round is planned around that result.
“This is a long game, and it is won zone by zone,” said Adam Koebel, Head of Operations at Aqua Analytics. “We report leak locations that are ready to dig, then we go back and check what the repairs gave us. That feedback loop is what keeps driving the loss figure down rather than holding it steady.”
Over time, acoustic survey history, night flow records and repair outcomes accumulate into a clearer picture of where this network loses water and why — the evidence base for targeting future rounds and for longer-term renewal decisions.
“Tiaki Wai has set out a long-term, regional plan for this network, and we are here to support it,” Mr Koebel said. “Our job is to keep finding the water that has already been treated and paid for, so that every litre recovered goes towards a more resilient supply for the region.”
Media Release on 29 September 2026
Media Contact
Hugh Chapman, Aqua Analytics
Email: hugh@aquaanalytics.co.nz
Phone: 021 841 841
Website: http://www.aquaanalytics.co.nz