Rainfall delays water restrictions

shut off for a week but the river had ‘‘quite a good lift’’ earlier this week, which meant it had been turned back on.

‘‘In some places there was quite a bit of rain, in the Rai Valley there was 50mm,’’ Wadsworth said.

He said the Waihopai, which had irrigation restrictions, only had a ‘‘very small lift’’.

‘‘The Waihopai is on the cusp of being on maybe for a day or two. But it won’t be for very long,’’ he said.

He said the Awatere and Wairau River were on the cusp of being shut off, but the rain had allowed for irrigation to remain available for at least another three days.

‘‘The big one, the Wairau, had quite a good wee lift in the river, and along with some reasonable generation from the Trust power scheme, the river is back to where it was a week or 10 days ago, so they’ve got another three to five days before there is restrictions,’’ he said.

Restrictions could affect close to 600 irrigators, including those on the Southern Valleys Irrigation scheme, which drew water from the Wairau River.

‘‘Little rain events such as what we had may improve the situation in the short term, but the whole catchment is so dry now that it will take a series of medium sized events to top the upper high country up,’’ Wadsworth said.

With more rain forecast for the high country later this week,

Wadsworth said with any luck there was a chance for more lift in river water levels.

He said despite these restrictions, Fire and Emergency were able to set up in the river ‘‘wherever they wanted’’.

Wairau Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade senior station officer Ian Topp said the station had one 5000 litre tanker which went to every call out.

‘‘We also rely on other tankers coming from other parts of Marlborough,’’ Topp said.