Water woes as big dry goes on

A burst water main in Richmond has been repaired but the long, dry spell is taking its toll.

Tasman District Council engineering services manager Richard Kirby said repairs to the trunk main under Lower Queen St were completed about 4am yesterday and chlorine had been added to water in the network as a precaution.

‘‘As soon as you lose pressure on the hills, there’s a risk of back flow,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘We’ll continue to use chlorine for the next 24 hours until ... all tests show everything is back to normal.’’

The team of council staff and contractors had ‘‘pulled out all the stops’’ to divert supplies and keep water and pressure in the system while the trunk main was repaired.

Kirby said there were no reports of any residents losing their supply of water. However, there were reports that many people heeded a call on Monday afternoon to conserve water and their actions were appreciated.

The problem started about 11.30am on Monday after the trunk main was broken while work was under way on a sewer line under Lower Queen St, near Headingly Lane.

Kirby said the team knew the trunk water main was in that area and had exposed what they believed was the pipe so it could be avoided. However, it turned out to be another pipe of the same diameter. The water main was lower and it was hit during work on the sewer line.

‘‘We found two pipes,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘We thought we had one pipe.’’

As a result of the breakage, the reservoirs off Valhalla Lane were drained about 4.30pm and there were concerns that could affect water supplies to the areas of Queen St, Wensley Rd, Hart Rd and the foothills.

‘‘We understand people heeded the message [to conserve water],’’ Kirby said. ‘‘We were able to retain pressure in most parts of Richmond.’’

Forecast rain last night was not expected to provide much relief from the long dry spell that has seen water restrictions imposed in Nelson from Monday, as water levels drop in the Maitai Dam. The MetService is not forecasting more rain until Christmas Day.

The Nelson City Council said yesterday that the dry conditions had seen river levels drop to within 10 per cent of the trigger point for rural water restrictions. They would apply to Nelson residents who take their water directly from streams and from bores within 20 metres of a stream.

The council estimated approximately 500 households would be affected by restrictions that would only allow water to be taken for domestic use, drinking water for animals and firefighting.

Affected residents would be asked to stop taking water for crop and garden irrigation and other non-essential uses.