Conserve water to delay restrictions — WDC
Dam levels falling in big dry
If Whanga¯rei residents reduce their water consumption by 20 per cent they might keep the district’s water restrictions at bay for a few weeks yet, the council has said.
Whanga¯rei District Council hasn’t put restrictions into place yet, because dam levels have been kept more than 70 per cent full by using other water sources.
Sixty per cent marks the critical point, when restrictions would be required.
“After the 2009/10 drought we installed a much bigger pipe to the Ha¯tea River. As a result of this, and a range of other works, we were able to use the river water and avoid using the dam,” the council’s water services manager Andrew Venmore said.
“No rain has come and the Whau Valley dam is now starting to drop at a rate of about 5 per cent per week.
“We need to slow that rate of consumption so the supply can last into the wet weather.”
He said the outlook for autumn was for dry weather, without any sustained periods of rain to top up aquifers, groundwater or the dam — which would require three to four weeks of downpours.
“A bit of rain will let us switch back to the river intake and ease demand on the dam for a short while, but we want people to cut their daily water use down by about a fifth, voluntarily.”
WDC said if everyone in the district reduced their water use voluntarily, council could delay imposing official restrictions.
Venmore said sensible water use would become the “new normal” as Whanga¯rei’s climate becomes increasingly dry in future years.
Domestic supply accounts for 70 per cent of water use in the district..
The amount that Whanga¯rei was delivering to the Far North to relieve the water shortage in the region adds up to less than 1 per cent of the district’s water use.
“Given the kind of weather we have had this year we are in a very good situation compared to our neighbours, Far North and Kaipara,” Venmore said. “We will help them if they need water, but we will also need to save water for ourselves.”
■ Visit bewaterwise.org.nz for more information.