00:02A call for Darwin residents to limit water use lifted late this afternoon, with overnight
00:10work at the Darwin River Dam pump station paying off.
00:13We've got 54 people dedicated to bringing the pump station back online, including 20
00:18technical staff and contractors who worked through the night last night under floodlight
00:24in particularly horrendous conditions.
00:26Today, two of four pumps are up and running on temporary generators, with power and water
00:33staff carving temporary roads to get them through.
00:36Water supply for Greater Darwin is currently part bore water, sourced near septic tanks.
00:43And while initial tests showed no contamination, the whole region is still on a boil water alert,
00:50pending further testing.
00:51And that is a precautionary measure to make sure that we remove risk from the system.
00:57It has been a very trying couple of weeks.
00:59And the last thing we need on top of that is an outbreak of gastroenteritis to complicate
01:03things for residents of Darwin and Palmerston region.
01:06The boil water alert, which came into place yesterday for the Greater Darwin region, means
01:12all water must be boiled before consumption.
01:14This includes for brushing teeth and for cleaning babies' bottles.
01:19The shock alert leaving supermarket shelves bare, local water parks shut and sports matches cancelled.
01:27The timeline for a return to normality still unclear.
01:32At this stage, our estimate is for up to five days.
01:35We're obviously throwing everything at this to get it connected as quickly as possible.
01:39We hope we can do it sooner.
01:41A capital city on alert in unprecedented times.
