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Work has started on a new water pump station at Taniwha Springs-Te Waro Uri, which is the main water supply for Rotorua’s Ngongotahā and Awahou communities.
The chair of Ngāti Rangiwewehi’s Pekehaua Puna Reserve Trust, Louis Bidois, says it will allow the removal of the existing pump station, which sits on the most culturally significant part of the waterway, where the taniwha Pekehaua resided.
Ngāti Rangiwewehi formed a partnership with Rotorua Lakes Council to apply for a joint consent for ongoing water take from the spring, after the council returned land and the spring its predecessor the Rotorua Borough Council took under the Public Works Act in 1966.
The new pump station should be in use by late June 2023, and restoration of the reserve will follow.
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