21 March 2013

Water use jumps up, no rain in sight

Water use in Wellington has jumped up despite a promising effort earlier in the week. No rain is forecast for the next ten days so Greater Wellington Regional Council is urging people to keep up their water saving efforts.

The total amount of water supplied by the Regional Council yesterday was 137 million litres (ML). This is 7ML above the target of 130 million litres (ML) per day – a figure that would extend our emergency storage in another spell of dry weather.

Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair Fran Wilde is calling on households and businesses to continue the water saving efforts which saw Monday taking the record for the second-lowest daily demand since records began in 1997.

“Yesterday’s numbers are pretty disappointing. These figures certainly take the shine off the excellent effort we saw earlier in the week,” says Chair Wilde.

“The rain has not made the situation go away – we still need to carry on with our water-saving efforts. Every litre we save extends the amount of time that our reserves will last if we get another dry spell – so we can’t afford sit back and relax.

“We know Wellingtonians can do it – the figures we’ve seen in the last few days are proof of that – so let’s just carry on with the good work for a bit longer.”

No rain is forecast for the next ten days and this period of dry weather could see river levels quickly dropping back to their pre-rain levels. This means that there will be less water available to take from rivers, so water will once again have to be supplemented from the Lower Hutt aquifer, and the water storage lakes in increasing volumes.

“Depending on what happens with river levels, another long period of dry weather could see us back in the position we were in a couple of weeks ago – rivers that are low and dropping, and no significant rain on the horizon. We need to be prepared,” says Chair Wilde.

A total outdoor water use ban is still in force for Wellington, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt.

ENDS

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