The city’s water use continued to climb last week despite the recent introduction of a new Water Watchers Plan and outdoor watering restrictions.

Council’s water services manager Peter Bahrs says the sound of rain hitting the roof on Sunday was music to his ears.

“Water use during the peak of last week’s hot weather reached 53.6 million litres. We know the increase in demand for water is driven primarily by outdoor water use, and thankfully as soon as the rain started falling on Sunday, demand for water dropped off by 20% percent,” he says.

Tauranga’s average water use sits at around 43.7 million litres of water per day and in previous summers has climbed to 58 million litres per day. However, after three dry summers in a row, the streams that supply the city with water are at the lowest levels seen going into November, which means anything higher than a 7-day rolling average of 50 million litres per day is unsustainable this summer.

“There’s a limit to how much water we can take without affecting the health of the streams,” says Peter.

“We want to thank those who are playing their part to help reduce their water use; however, we need more people to do the same thing and save more water.

In November 2021, the Council introduced its Water Watchers Plan, which replaces traditional outdoor watering restrictions with a year-round plan to help maintain the city’s water supply.

As part of the plan, sprinklers are banned completely from December to March, but handheld hoses with a trigger nozzle are allowed for an hour between 7pm and 10pm. The plan also includes warning and emergency phases should water use keep trending upwards. 

While the past week’s sodden weather averted the need to move into the warning phase, the weather forecast over the Christmas break is for lots of sunshine which may see water use creep up again. 

“Please help us spread the message about our new Water Watchers Plan and dampen your water use wherever you can,” says Peter.

“And please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any concerns or spot water being used outside of the restrictions in the plan.”

See the Water Watchers Plan and find out you can use water at home, at work and in the community

© Scoop Media