Why central Tawa floods
Tiaki Wai says recent widespread flooding in central Tawa, Lincoln Avenue, Collins Avenue and Beauchamp Street came mainly from under-sized or blocked pipes that couldn't cope with large stormwater flows from the steep catchment above. For Wellington City Council, it is working in three places: a new pipe from Collins Avenue to Porirua Stream, a duplicate pipe from Lincoln Avenue to the stream, and storage and creek works at Lyndhurst Park.
Tawa homes in numbers
Owners and family homes
Of 4,407 occupied homes at the 2023 Census, 60.9% were owned by the household and 7.5% held in a trust. 28.2% had four bedrooms, against 24% nationally.
Damp and mould
19.7% of homes were sometimes damp (15.8% nationally), and 13.1% sometimes had mould larger than A4 (10.5%).
Heating
Electric heaters were a main heating type in 55.6% of homes and wood burners in 19.1%, below the 28.2% national figure.
Still building
Stats NZ counts 53 new dwellings consented in the year to March 2024, 58 in 2025 and 48 in 2026.
Who looks after what
Stormwater is a shared job. Tiaki Wai manages the piped network, the council looks after kerbside drains, sumps and culverts under roads, Greater Wellington manages rivers and major streams, and property owners keep their own drains working. Tiaki Wai says flooding usually happens when the system is overwhelmed and overland flow paths are blocked.
On the wastewater side, your lateral to the public network is yours to maintain and a blocked gully trap needs a plumber. Roof downpipes must go to stormwater, not the gully trap. Faults in the street: 0800 TIAKI WAI (842 549).
More pages: Johnsonville, Porirua, stormwater drainlaying, and Wellington's drainlayers and blocked drains pages.
What we would do
Before winter, clear leaves and debris from your outside drains and sumps, as WREMO advises, and make sure fences, garden beds or stacked timber aren't blocking the path water takes across your section. If your yard still ponds after rain, ask a Tawa drainlayer to check whether your private stormwater pipes are cracked, blocked or too small for the roof they serve.