City parks to go brown in big dry

City parks will be left to turn brown and flowerbeds wilt as a serious water shortage looms.

The Turitea dam is less than 80 per cent full, and at the current rate of water use could be as near empty by February as it was in May of 2003, the driest autumn in recent history.

Water asset engineer Dora Luo said the council was stopping its own outdoor water use almost completely as it grappled with the prospect of imposing a total ban on residents.

The only bits of green that would be saved were the events quadrant in The Square, Main St gardens and Fitzherbert Park, which the council was contractually obliged to keep up to standard for first-class cricket.

It would carry in non-drinking water by tanker from a bore at the Totara Rd wastewater treatment plant for cleaning up bird poo around The Square and for removing graffiti.

Level-two water restrictions banning the use of sprinklers and irrigation systems have just clicked in, after level-one restrictions limiting their use to two hours on alternate days failed to dent demand. The city was using 32,000 cubic metres of water each day, up from a winter average of 24,000cum a day.

Luo said if people could cut their water use from 300 litres per person each day to the winter norm of 200L a day, stored water would last well into March. ‘‘If everybody makes an effort, we can make it.’’

Council staff would be patrolling to check people were complying with water restrictions and could issue infringement notices. Luo said unless forecast rain early next week was heavier than expected and water use dropped, a total ban on outdoor water use was ‘‘not far away’’.