‘Flush less’ message as drought continues
Residents of Richmond are being urged to cut their water use in half, including flushing the toilet less often.
As the drought deepens across the region, the Tasman District Council is appealing for a change in behaviour from urban residents.
Council engineering services manager Richard Kirby said a breakdown of the Richmond data revealed residents were using an estimated 200 to 300 litres of water per person per day.
The goal they and fellow urbanites around the Waimea Plains were being urged to aim for was 125 litres per person per day.
‘‘I don’t think people actually understand the consequences of that,’’ Kirby said.
‘‘What they’re doing now, they have to halve it again and that requires what I call a behaviour change.’’
For toilets ‘‘that means if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down’’.
Flushing the toilet multiple times a day could use 50 to 60 litres of water, he said.
The council itself had implemented that yellow-mellow policy at its office ‘‘and we’re getting resistance from staff who don’t like ... seeing yellow in the toilet’’.
‘‘It’s just a psychological thing really,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘It’s not what we’re used to.’’
The engineering boss spent a few days in Cape Town last year while the South African city was in the grip of a water crisis. Severe water restrictions were in place with fears of a ‘‘day zero’’ when the municipal water supply would be largely cut off.
Kirby said the two people he stayed with were using an average of just 65 litres between them. They had no garden and had tanks on each downpipe to collect rainwater. Any water from washing dishes or clothes was kept and reused.
‘‘When you had a shower, you spent 30 seconds wetting yourself down, sometimes less than that,’’ he said. ‘‘Then you turn it off, soap yourself down, put your shampoo in your hair and then put the shower back on for another 20-30 seconds to wash yourself down ... and you’re standing in a bowl collecting all the water.’’
That collected water would then be emptied into buckets and used to flush the toilet.
Some of the water-saving tips Kirby picked up on that trip to South Africa, he was now using at his home in Richmond as the drought lingered.
A container in the shower was used to collect the water used, which was then put on the garden in the evening. Water used for brushing teeth was collected in an icecream pottle and also reused.
Kirby said another resident told him he had connected his washing machine outlet pipe to a drum. That water was then pumped out onto his garden.
‘‘There are people being quite innovative and we encourage that,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘It is doable.’’
Even if 100mm of rain arrived gently over the weekend so most of it soaked into the ground, it might only provide a short reprieve.
‘‘I’m picking if we don’t get follow-up rain within a week or 10 days after that, we’ll be back in the same position within 10 days-two weeks,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘The ground is so dry. It started drying out in October. It’s so dry now, it’s going to take a long period of sustained rain to actually pull us back to where we need to be.’’
The council has issued a cease-take direction for the Motupiko and Dovedale water zones from Monday, meaning water can only be used for essential human and stock health and no irrigation is permitted.
Council Dry Weather Task Force convenor Dennis Bush-King on Wednesday said the prospect of some rain towards the end of the week, while welcome, was unlikely to bring immediate relief and the situation remained serious.
‘‘We have had 6.6 mm of rain in the last 55 days,’’ Bush-King said. ‘‘The previous driest 55-day period was in 2001 with 17.2mm. Soils are very dry and any water the plants are getting is coming from irrigation.’’
There was no water left in the lower reaches of the Motupiko or Dove rivers, which was the reason for the cease take from Monday.
‘‘That means water cannot be taken for irrigation and may only be used for human and stock health purposes,’’ he said.