Town’s water levels ‘critical’
The water supply levels in the northern Southland town of Mossburn have reached critical levels and residents are being asked to conserve water to stop the town from running dry.
The Southland District Council issued a warning to residents on Wednesday, asking then to do ‘‘everything possible’’ to conserve water immediately.
Yesterday morning, a Southland District Council spokesperson said the town’s reservoir had stabilised as a result of good conservation by consumers. But the situation was still critical, and water consumers there should still conserve water wherever possible in the meantime.
At the Dome Cafe on Mossburn’s Main St, Tania Findlay said she didn’t know when it last rained in the town.
Cafe staff were conserving water and not doing any ‘‘uncritical things’’, she said. ‘‘If it gets any worse I don’t know what we’ll do. The bosses may have to think about closing because you have to think about hygiene,’’ she said. ‘‘Although looking out the window now it looks like it might rain. It’s building up a bit.’’
Some rain fell in the town late yesterday, and Environment Southland data shows 35.5mm fell last month. There have been thunderstorms in the province this week but the rain has not been enough to break the dry spell.
Southland Federated Farmers president Chris Dillon said the rain had been patchy. He had 60mm on his farm at Ardlussa, but some farmers had not had any, he said.
‘‘It’s unusual that coastal Southland and Clutha are the driest places like they were last year. They’re areas that traditionally don’t dry out that much.
‘‘It looks like there is more in the forecast next week, but we’ll have to see what happens.’’
Dillon said farmers were trying to get stock off farms as but issues with staffing at meat processors was making that difficult.
‘‘There might be rain but there’s not enough moisture in the soil for anything to grow so pasture growth isn’t keeping up with demand.’’
Metservice duty forecaster Dan Corrigan said the hot muggy temperatures will continue.
Heat warnings had been issued for Gore for today and tomorrow, where temperatures were forecast to reach 29 and 30 degrees respectively.
In Invercargill it would reach 30C today and 31C tomorrow, he said.
Only 34.2mm of rain had fallen in Gore in January, where the historical average for the month was 93mm.
In Invercargill, the average for January was 94.3mm but only 23.4mm had fallen, he said.
‘‘Next week we’ll see a change to a more westerly pattern and some fronts crossing over, but there are no systems lining up that will bring significant rain,’’ he said.