Why do we Civil Defence folks always go on about storing water? Well, to answer that question it might help to have the background: The water that comes out of our taps comes from big water tanks up on the tops of our hills. The water that fills up these reservoirs mostly comes from Te Marua (Upper Hutt), Wainuiomata and Petone.
Since our main water supply pipes coming out from the Hutt cross the Wellington fault, they will probably break in a large earthquake, which will take a while to fix. As well as this, some of the pipes from the local reservoir to your house might break due to slips etc. Most of the reservoirs are fitted with valves that turn off the water if there is a big earthquake, to stop leaks draining all the water.
So, all things considered it could easily be several weeks after an earthquake before you start seeing water coming out of your taps again.
