{"id":647416,"date":"2026-03-11T06:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T06:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/647416\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T06:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T06:59:17","slug":"boil-water-alert-remains-for-darwin-area-after-flood-takes-out-dam-pump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/647416\/","title":{"rendered":"Boil water alert remains for Darwin area after flood takes out dam pump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A boil water alert remains for residents in the Darwin and Palmerston area, but there is no longer a directive to conserve water, after flash flooding impacted the Darwin River Dam&#8217;s pumps.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Earlier this week, unprecedented flash flooding damaged the pump system at the dam, which supplies most of Darwin&#8217;s water.<\/p>\n<p>Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">With the area now heavily relying on bore water, <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-03-10\/boil-water-alert-darwin-water-usage-reductions-river-dam\/106434412\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106434412\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a boil water alert was issued and residents and businesses were urged to conserve their water use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-03-10\/nt-what-does-a-boil-water-alert-mean\/106436964\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What does a boiled water alert mean? <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">A boil water alert has been issued for Darwin, in addition to Katherine, Beswick and Tindal. Here&#8217;s what you need to know about your water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Infrastructure Minister Bill Yan was at the Darwin River Dam pump station on Tuesday night, where a large team of operators managed to get a back-up generator to the site to operate the pump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;There\u2019s more work to do but we\u2019re making good progress,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Yan said the next step was to fix the road to the dam so more back-up generators could be brought in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The dam usually operates with four pumps, and while the NT government said progress was being made on repairing those pumps, residents were urged to reduce their water usage as consumption was exceeding supply.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Footage of a full dam with a road on the left and trees in the background\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773212354_237_d12baf2f4a71b16d541f8ff5b8edbeab.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Darwin River Dam was pushed to 110 per cent capacity when the flash flooding impacted the pump site.\u00a0 (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">With one pump online and running off a temporary generator, efforts turned to connecting a second pump to the overhead power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Power and Water acting chief executive John Pease said with two pumps connected, that would provide enough output of water to exceed the average consumption during the wet season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">By Wednesday afternoon, Mr Pease told ABC Radio Darwin the second pump was up and running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;This is breaking news, it was just confirmed to me on the way here that we&#8217;ve hit that milestone,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;In a truly amazing effort \u2026 they&#8217;ve now managed to connect a second pump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve still got work to do to connect to a permanent source of power, but we&#8217;ve got the generator connected to two pumps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;With two running, we&#8217;re confident we&#8217;re producing enough water so we&#8217;re above our average level of consumption in the wet season&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Pease said crews had worked tirelessly through the night &#8220;in truly horrendous conditions&#8221;, constructing a 3-kilometre gravel road from a dirt track so a heavy semi-trailer carrying equipment could cross.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The first trailer made it within 400 metres of the pump and bogged, so crews had to find an alternative solution in an on-site generator that they managed to repair and get running.<\/p>\n<p>What does a boil water alert mean?Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">NT Health has issued the boil water alert, recommending using cooled boiled water or bottled water for:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ContentAlignment_marginBottom__4H_6E ContentAlignment_overflowVisible__N2zKU\">\n<li>Drinking\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Preparing food\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Preparing baby formula\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Brushing teeth\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">NT Health recommends boiling water by bringing it to a full rolling boil, until a continuous and rapid stream of air-bubbles is produced in the pan or kettle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-03-11\/darwin-river-flooding-residents-rescued-dam-operations-restart\/106440514\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sudden flooding at Darwin River shocks residents<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">People have had to be rescued from croc-inhabited waters and some have lost everything following flooding in Darwin River.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Chief health officer Paul Burgess said the alert was a precautionary measure until results from water sample tests came back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We are in unprecedented times with the failure of the Darwin River Dam pump that has led to Power and Water activating their emergency plans to activate bore fields at McMinns Lagoon and the Howard River,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Completely empty supermarket shelves where bottle water would be\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f10d2881d75857eead2943330489e895.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Bottled water stocks at Darwin supermarkets have beet depleted. (ABC News: Matilda Colling)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The concern was with those bore fields that they are close to residences that have septic tanks, and there is a possibility with a lot of water around in the wet season, a lot of water flowing, that the bore field could be possibly contaminated,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We made the decision to institute a boil water alert for the Darwin and Palmerston region, and that is a precautionary measure to make sure that we remove risk from the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"EmphasisedText_quote__TE6kn\"><p>&#8220;It has been a very big couple of weeks and the last thing we need on top of that is an outbreak of gastroenteritis to complicate things.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Water flows over a spillway\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1e2b91c4baedb041fa6999aad877918b.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Water was flowing over the spillway at Darwin River Dam in January. (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A boil water alert remains for residents in the Darwin and Palmerston area, but there is no longer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":647417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,274709,13265,275112,8580,50,13263,275111,84943,49371,313],"class_list":["post-647416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-boil-water-alert","tag-darwin","tag-darwin-river-dam","tag-flooding","tag-news","tag-nt","tag-palmerston","tag-pump","tag-water-conservation","tag-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116209252221542075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}