The University’s clean-up effort is continuing after heavy rain two weeks ago caused campus-wide building leaks and water damage.

University Facilities Manager Dave Povey told Salient that a large number of buildings were affected on the Kelburn campus, including the Student Union Building, with an electrical switchboard failure due to water damage, damage to ceiling tiles and flooding from the second-floor Women’s Room down through the Union staffroom to the ground floor VUWSA workroom.

Other areas affected include Old Kirk, the Hunter Council Chambers, the Overbridge and Rutherford House at Pipitea Campus.

Povey says the rain was “an exceptional downpour and NIWA recorded rainfall of 15mm per hour across a 4 hour period. To give you a comparison NIWA classifies 6mm per hour as ‘Heavy’.”

Buildings are slowly being returned to normal operations, although the Women’s Room is still out of use.

Povey says the University “responds to ‘ad hoc’ leaks through the reactive maintenance programme” and “currently allocates $300,000 to the planned replacement of roofing”.