Mayor sticks to short showers as council urges water restraint

Monday, 29 October 2018

Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel says doing the small things helps when conserving water.

Christchurch's mayor takes shorter showers, tips her dishwater on the garden and waits for a full load to do laundry.

As the city council launches a water conservation campaign so it can fix quake-damaged well heads and end chlorination, Mayor Lianne Dalziel said there were no excuses for residents not to make savings.

Using water-saving shower heads or keeping shower time under three minutes are among suggestions for conserving water over summer.

She stressed the campaign was not because of any water shortage, but to take the load off the infrastructure over summer.

'Every day I see a letter to the editor in The Press saying 'Why should I save water when you are letting bottles of water get exported to China?

A well head at a Christchurch water pumping station.

Well head renewals map for Christchurch.

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Fixing well heads and chlorinating water is costing Christchurch ratepayers close to $40 million.

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'We are not short of water. There's plenty of water for everyone. Our problem is the infrastructure,' Dalziel said.

The reason we want to conserve water is so we can switch off the well heads that we want to fix. We want to get the chlorine out of the water.'

Council would object to any water bottling consent application before Environment Canterbury if they thought it would affect the city's water supply, she said.

The council began chlorinating the city's water in March after testing revealed the damaged well heads risked contaminating water coming up from the city's aquifers.

Of her own efforts, Dalziel said she has been following the suggestions on the council website, including recycling sink water by catching it in a bowl for the garden.

'It's just trying to do the little things.

'I always use the (dishwasher) eco-setting, I never use anything else. And definitely the shorter shower.'

On the suggested use of a broom instead of a hose to clean the driveway, Dalziel she had 'actually got around that by not doing anything'.

The five-month conservation campaign begins this week. As a last resort if usage is not reduced over summer, council may also ban garden sprinklers and restrict garden hosing to alternate evenings only.

The council is aiming to remove chlorine from the city's water supply by May.

The chlorination plus repairs to approximately 50 wells are expected to cost almost $40 million – more than 25 times the council's initial estimate.