Town warned: Stop wasting water!

11th March 2010

The Northland Regional Council has brushed off a suggestion that drought-stricken Kaitaia residents need more water.

The statement comes amid predictions the town could run out of water within weeks.

The Far North District Council says a consent from the NRC to take 2600 cubic metres - or 2.6 million litres - a day from the Awanui River is about 500 cubic metres short of what it needs to meet the demands of the community.

The town used 2750 cubic metres of water on Sunday and - with no predictions for rain over the next 10 days - the pressure on supply is expected to build, it says.

Far North District Council spokeswoman Alison Lees said it  was now having to use water reservoirs to supplement the supply and estimated the town would run dry in about three weeks under the current conditions.

The council tried to keep its reservoirs full in case of an emergencies, such as a major fire, but they were now slowly emptying.

The council was in discussions with  health authorities to work out contingency plans should water supplies run out. In the worst-case scenario, water tankers would have to be called in to supply the town.

"It's a serious situation," she said.

Prohibitions on some water uses started this week and  residents of some towns face a $20,000 fine if caught watering their gardens.

The two councils were working together and she was hopeful the consent limit might be increased.

However, Northland Regional Council operations director Tony Phipps questioned whether the water conservation message was getting through in the area.

The 2600-cubic-metre limit was in line with water use of similar-sized towns that were not experiencing drought conditions and were not being asked to conserve water.

The consent supplied enough water so that every person in the town of 5400 people could use up to 370 litres of water a day.

Kaitaia would not run out of water unless drought conditions continued for a long time into the future, he said.

If the situation did not improve,  the next step was to place restrictions on businesses that used a lot of water, Mr Phipps said.