Media advisory

Wellington water supply situation update – 21 March 2013

Today's data:
Daily target water use (maximum) = 130 million litres (ML)
Yesterday's water use = 137ML
Change from Tuesday = higher by 15ML

Water use jumped sharply yesterday, after two days of below-target water use. River levels are falling quickly towards pre-rain levels and the weather outlook indicates no rain for at least 10 days.

We need to maintain the level of water use below 130ML per day. Lower demand helps to preserve our water reserves longer.

Yesterday’s water supply came from:
Rivers: 86ML
Hutt aquifer: 56ML
Storage: increased by 5ML (within the Regional Council’s distribution network reservoirs)
Storage in Lake 2 was increased by 54ML

The water in the Hutt, Wainuiomata and Orongorongo rivers has cleaned up enough for us to treat. River flow rates continue to fall after the recent rain. We'll have a better idea of how rapidly river flows will return to pre-rain levels in the next day or two.

We increased storage in Lake 2 yesterday by 54ML. Lake 2 is now 97% full and we expect to be able to top this up further over the next couple of days.

This morning’s 14-day weather outlook indicates no rain before the end of March, anticipating another spell of fine settled weather – we need to keep demand low.

The outdoor water use ban remains active.

The latest supply graph

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