On the verge of drought
Despite 11 months of seemingly nonstop rain, Taranaki is on the verge of a drought after a month of fine weather.
There’s been very little rain in the region since early November and water restrictions are now in place in New Plymouth until March and in Stratford, Toko and Midhurst until further notice.
Federated Farmers Taranaki president Donald McIntyre said it was a rough time for many farmers, with a difficult spring now leading into a dry summer.
‘‘The weather patterns that everyone’s predicting are not good for Taranaki at the moment,’’ he said.
Many farmers were cutting down on milking and some may need to dry out their stock early, he said.
‘‘Some of them may not be milking after Christmas so that’s very severe.
‘‘Cows if they’re not milking can survive on very little through the summer, but you’re not making any money off them and that’s not a good place to be.’’
McIntyre said it was important to look out for your neighbours.
‘‘We’ve been through the worst financial time for dairy farmers that most of us can remember.
‘‘The emotional pressure on farmers is going to be huge, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.’’
And the impact could be felt by the wider community, New Plymouth District Council infrastructure manager David Langford said.
He is urging everyone to save water.
‘‘We all know it rains heaps in Taranaki, especially over winter but because we live in a mountainous region, this rainfall quickly travels out to sea. Our main water storage facility holds about 10 days’ worth of water.’’
He said the restrictions may be extended from the odd-and-even system to a total hose ban if the situation got worse.
‘‘New Zealand has a clean, green image but our water use is shockingly wasteful; our consumption is about double that of most other countries in the world.
‘‘Locally, our water use has increased by about 30 per cent in the space of just a few weeks.’’
Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) resource management director Fred McLay said most of the region’s waterways were at or about mean annual low flow levels – the average of the lowest flow for each recorded year.
‘‘These low flow levels have occurred unusually early this summer. They normally occur around January/February.’’
He said drought conditions may develop if the period of low rainfall and falling river levels continued.
‘‘The Ministry for Primary Industries is responsible for officially declaring a drought for the farming community.
‘‘The Taranaki Regional Council can control water use during periods of significantly low rainfall and low river levels.’’
Director of assets for Stratford District Council, Victoria Araba, said they had limited storage capacity above their intakes.
‘‘The catchment areas for Stratford district are fairly small and generally rely on water coming off the mountain.’’
Some of New Plymouth’s golf courses are also looking brown in places but Simon Rowe, general manager of New Plymouth Golf Club at Nga¯ motu, said they were okay with their irrigation of their fairways, and they also had consent to use the water from their course lakes if the need arose.
He said the quick turnaround had been crazy.
‘‘We had to drain a lake that
had formed on the course probably about six weeks ago that didn’t seem to want to dissipate and six weeks later we’re praying for rain.’’
According to the TRC, November rainfall was below normal by between 16 and 97 per cent, with many sites having no rain since the 16th.
Eight sites recorded new November minimums.
Soil moisture, while still medium or high, has been steadily decreasing over the past week in many areas.
‘‘The weather patterns that everyone’s predicting are not good for Taranaki at the moment.’’ Donald McIntyre - Federated Farmers Taranaki president