The Manawatū Wastewater Centralisation project involves the development of infrastructure to pipe wastewater from the villages of Halcombe, Sanson, Rongotea, Awahuri, Cheltenham and Kimbolton to the Manawatū Wastewater Treatment Plant in Feilding for treatment and disposal.
Sanson's centralisation is now complete with Rongotea up next, followed by Halcombe.
The centralisation project creates economic and environmental benefits for residents.
- Economically it makes sense because we won't be required to apply for resource consents for the smaller village wastewater ponds and it will streamline operational costs.
- Environmentally, it means that the village wastewater can be processed through some of the new treatment initiatives such as irrigation or wetlands, which means less treated wastewater is discharged to rivers.
Sanson - Completed
The Sanson project includes 13.7 km of pipeline and three pumpstations. It not only includes the wastewater from Sanson but also from RNZAF Base Ōhakea.
What makes the wastewater transport particularly interesting is that the pipeline climbs 85m higher than Sanson itself before becoming a gravity line for the last 6km of the journey.
In February 2024, the Sanson pump stations were officially opened along with three, 70m3 underground storage tanks for emergency storage. These storage tanks are 2.0m in diameter and 22.7m long. Together, the pump stations transfer wastewater at 38 L/s.
