The Otago Regional Council is bringing in heavy duty pumps from around New Zealand to help clear floodwater from the Taieri Plain.
As of yesterday, there was an estimated 35million cu m of water in the upper ponding area of the Lower Taieri, which was designed to hold back floodwater as part of the council's flood protection scheme, Dr Palmer said.
Some of the additional heavy duty pumps from around New Zealand were installed yesterday and on Monday.
Others were being sourced from Clydevale and the Bay of Plenty and would be brought into service as soon as they arrived.
The council had permanent pump stations at six locations in the Taieri.
All but one were already working around the clock and the sixth, at Silver Stream, would be activated once water levels dropped far enough to make pumping there effective.
The permanent pumps were at Waipori, Ascog, Mill Creek, Henley, Scroggs and Silver Stream.
The council also had gravity-fed drains, some of which had to be cleared of debris, including bales of silage washed away by the floods, before they could operate effectively.
Council operations manager Nineva Vaitupu said commercial divers were brought in to repair a pump at Ascog, on the western side of the Taieri Plain, yesterday.
The pump, which was fully operational following yesterday's repairs, had been taken out of action due to a critical failure before the flood, Mr Vaitupu said.
He acknowledged the pump being out of action would have had an effect on the amount of flooding, but said he was not sure of the extent of that.
