First world plans, third world solutions

Repairs to leaking water pipes in Takuvaine are not 100 per cent effective and the pipes are still leaking.
On Tuesday morning, an unimpressed Takuvaine resident showed the Herald the leaking pipes which are located just past the National Archives building on the left in the dry creek just below the access road to the large concrete water tank in Takuvaine Valley.
The old pipes have had what appear to be strips of rubber tubing from a bike tyre, wrapped around them. This might be the type of repair job you might find in a poor, destitute third world nation but surely not in a nation with the highest GDP per head of population, in the Pacific.
As it is these pipes are still leaking, (see photos) hardly the result you want in a drought.
How can residents preserve water if the water is lost through leaks before it reaches their homes let alone their water tanks? It is very difficult for residents to swallow government warnings about the need to preserve water because there is a drought when government itself is ineffective at repairing leaky pipes.
How does government explain the recent TV film of the large amount of water in the hills and virtually nothing coming through pipes from the intakes? Does this not indicate a leak somewhere?

Herald Issue 463 10 June
- World famous activist assisting residents
- Budget will decide if residents prosecute Government over landfill
- Forestry project sucking Mangaia dry
- Budget 2010 – fiasco or disaster?