More water restrictions likely in Wellington as emergency reserves are drained

Friday, 1 December 2017

Willie Manulaiatea runs home from Belmont School through a parched Fraser Park in the Lower Hutt suburb of Avalon.

Wellington's water crisis is deepening despite usage dropping with the rollout of a sprinkler ban, and more restrictions are likely sooner rather than later.

On Friday, available water only outstripped usage by two million litres, and that was with the region already drawing heavily from emergency lake supplies that would normally remain untapped until late January.

The Hutt River - a major source of Wellington's drinking water - is extremely low for this time of year.

On first day of summer, seven per cent of the water in the lakes at Te Marua, north of Upper Hutt, had been drawn away.

Wellington Water treatment plants manager Jeremy McKibbin said daily usage had fallen from 182 million litres to 173 million litres since restrictions on sprinklers were imposed on Wednesday night.

The first day of summer saw Wellington's Oriental Bay Beach packed with sun-seekers during a prolonged spell of fine weather.

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But the total amount of water available had also fallen from 185 million litres to 175 million litres, leaving only a minimal buffer.

Target usage sat at 160 million litres per day for the region, and McKibbin urged residents to stick to the restrictions.

'Every drop we take out of the lakes is a drop we don't have at the end of summer when we really need it. It is relatively serious.'

In 23 years working on Wellington's water supply McKibbin said he hadn't seen water levels so low in November, or restrictions come into forced this early in the year.

'Unless we do see some reduction in demand we may have to move to some more serious outdoor use bans sooner rather than later. I'm hoping we get a good enough response from the public that we don't have to do that.'

A total ban on outdoor water use, including restrictions on washing cars and buildings, could be a possibility.

Some areas had been cohering the existing bans more stringently than others, with residents in the Lower Hutt suburb of Eastbourne seeming to be the worst offenders for ignoring sprinkler restrictions – indicated by the number of residents dobbing in their neighbours and continued high water usage.

Wellington Water would be dropping off fliers to offending properties if residents continued to use sprinklers, with the possibility of prosecutions if residents continued.

Metservice meteorologist Lisa Murray said November was the second-driest year since records began in 1927.

This dry spell coincided with four of the eight bores at the Knight Rd aquifer being out of action due to emergency upgrades, which would usually supply around half the region's water.

But there may be some relief on the horizon with a new UV treatment facility at Waiwhetu Aquifer expected to be online in a couple of weeks, which would increase the amount of water that could be drawn.

Sunshine hours had leapt up, with recordings from Kelburn showing hours jumping from 180 hours last year, to 251 in 2017.

Although the ridge of high pressure that has been sitting over Wellington for the past couple of weeks was expected to weaken this weekend, Murray said the the weather continues to be generally sunny and dry.

A number of councils around the region have also put voluntary restrictions in place for their own water usage, including limiting the watering of parks, plantings, and the washing of cars and buildings.

WELLINGTON

Wellington City Council has already cut back on irrigation, but the city still intends to keep watering its sports fields, public lawns and plant collections.

Parks, sports and recreation manager Paul Andrews said it would explore other ways to save on water 'if the drought conditions continue'.

It would water by hand 'where practical', pause field renovations until autumn 2018, defer its annual building washdowns, set sprinklers for early mornings and evenings, and might stop or empty some of the city's water features.

PORIRUA

Porirua City Council will cut back on watering parks, lawns and gardens.

In a statement, the council's chief operating officer Tamsin Evans said residents would see some parks and reserves quickly 'browning off'.

'We want to do the right thing and conserve water as much as possible but at the same time we have recently invested in upgrading three of our key sports fields; Porirua Park, Endeavour Park and Ngāti Toa Domain, so we need to keep watering to ensure the grass establishes properly.

'Loss of condition would jeopardise the playing surfaces for winter and we'd face significant renovation costs.'

Porirua Park and Endeavour Park had in-ground irrigation systems which will operate at night. Ngāti Toa Domain will be watered morning and evening by a mobile irrigator.

Watering at the nursery would be done during cooler times of the day to protect young plants being grown for next winter's planting season.

LOWER HUTT

Hutt City Council parks manager Bruce Hodgins said contractors had been instructed to restrict water usage.

A small amount of watering was being done but only in the morning or evening to minimise evaporation and only on a required basis.

Some areas still required watering, including particular plants in the Percy Reserve nursery and cricket pitches, Hodgins said.

WAIRARAPA

In Carterton, no suspension of irrigating garden beds or washing council cars or buildings had been adopted, with thunderstorms earlier in the week taking pressure off supplies.

Infrastructure and Services Manager Garry Baker said some water restrictions were in place due to the low flow in the Kaipaitangata stream.

'Staff will be monitoring daily usage; if usage gets to high we will have introduce stage two of water restriction. Stage two only allows for the use of hand held hosing on alternate days.'

'If the situation worsens, we will then activate stage three, which would see a complete hosing ban.'

'Due to the low river flow, we have already started irrigating wastewater to Daleton Farm. This started on 11 November which is at least five weeks earlier than the last three years. This proves what a dry season we are already having.'

KĀPITI COAST

On the Kāpiti Coast, it is unlikely that water restrictions will need to be introduced this summer.

Infrastructure Services group manager Sean Mallon said water consumption across the district had reduced since water meters were introduced in 2014.

'People are now more aware of their water consumption and, as a result, peak water consumption has reduced by more than 26 percent.'

Mallon said this had helped the council secure more than enough water to manage even the worst drought conditions.

'If we have an extremely dry summer we can call on our bores to recharge the river if river levels get low, but this will not require us to apply water restrictions.'