The new UV equipment at the Ashburton Domain water treatment plant will be commissioned later this week.

The plant is one of four supplying water to Ashburton town, but it has been shut down for the past month while contractors working for Council have been upgrading it.

Council has spent about $10 million in the past 12 months upgrading all its community water treatment plants with UV disinfection and cartridge filtration to meet the national rules – the domain plant and Dromore are the final projects.

Group Manager of Infrastructure Neil McCann said the domain plant was being commissioned over three days, from Wednesday to Friday.

“We’ll flush a lot of water through the plant, as the bore has not been in use for a few weeks, and then the new UV step will kick in and the water distributed as usual in our large pipe network to homes and businesses.

“The domain plant usually supplies half the town’s drinking water so it will be good to have our systems operating normally again, and people may notice their water pressure improve when it comes back on.

“There might be a bit of water in the gutter along Walnut Avenue too during the flushing phase, but that’s an essential part of getting the plant back online and ensuring the treatment system is working properly.”