City faces curbs on water use

Christchurch could face water restrictions after the city council admitted it will miss its May deadline to remove chlorine from drinking water.

Supplies are unlikely to be entirely free of chlorine until October under the timetable of work to repair vulnerable well heads.

Around 90 per cent of the city’s water supply should be untreated by May, with areas such as Beckenham and Cashmere facing extended chlorination.

Extending treatment beyond then would require the explicit approval of councillors.

Council water bosses blamed part of the delay on high levels of use over summer when almost every pump in the city is needed to meet demand, making it difficult to repair wells.

While a conservation campaign over summer helped, they are now calling for restrictions from March to May to limit watering gardens to alternate days only, using hand-held hoses.

Canterbury has had an ‘‘abnormally dry’’ summer, according to weather forecaster Niwa, with rainfall between 20 and 50 per cent less than normal.

Helen Beaumont, head of the council’s water supply improvement programme, said restrictions would potentially allow for a larger number of wells to be made secure by May.

‘‘If we can significantly reduce the demand for water we would be able to carry out improvement works on a larger number of wells over the next few weeks,’’ she said.

The restrictions being sought are the second most drastic and would mean a ban on the use of unattended hoses, sprinklers and garden irrigation systems.

Beaumont will ask the council to approve the proposal at a meeting tomorrow.

Demand for pure drinking water has been so high the council is providing untreated supplies for people to collect by hand from pump stations in New Brighton and Burnside, similar to the way thousands queued at a private well in Cashmere.

Councillor Pauline Cotter, head of the council’s infrastructure committee, said the prospect of having to extend chlorination for another six months left her caught between a ‘‘rock and a hard place’’.

‘‘I don’t feel happy about it at all but the principle remains the same – the safety of the population of Christchurch rests on our shoulders,’’ she said.

To date 39 of Christchurch’s 140 wells have been repaired and signed off as secure.

The remaining eight of nine zones are expected to be chlorine-free by the May deadline.