Nelson eases water restrictions
While recent rain has prompted the Nelson City Council to ease water restrictions, dry conditions remain across the greater NelsonTasman region.
‘‘Niwa’s still got us as a drought. There’s still really low soil moisture,’’ Tasman District Council community relations manager Chris Choat said yesterday. Despite the recent rain, the Wai-iti Community Dam at Kainui was less than 20 per cent full.
‘‘The rain only raised it about 10 millimetres. That’s because the catchment above the dam was extremely dry.’’
However, the aquifers had received a good recharge, evaporation was low, and ‘‘a large number of crops that would rely on irrigation have been harvested’’, he said.
In a statement yesterday, the Nelson council said that in light of the rainfall received over the past week, it was able to ease water restrictions.
For urban Nelson, stage one restrictions are now in effect, which allow residents of oddnumbered houses to use sprinklers on odd-numbered days only, and vice versa. Hand watering with a hose is permitted.
‘‘We encourage residents to treat water as the precious resource that it is, and any further savings over and above the current restrictions are very much appreciated,’’ the council said.
In the rural areas, river flows had improved ‘‘but they are likely to drop again unless we get sustained regular rainfall’’, it said.
Rural restrictions had been eased to essential domestic use, livestock and firefighting along with hand watering of productive home gardens, using a bucket or watering can, every other day.
Choat said a range of water restrictions were still in force across Tasman district, with the Dry Weather Task Force due to meet again last night.