Summer crowds and fine weather mean Tauranga's water supply is coming under pressure.
We have reached the point where we are closely monitoring water consumption day by day,” says acting manager for City Waters, Graeme Jelley.

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'We haven't yet reached the point where we would impose water restrictions.
We're managing to keep ahead of demand. At the moment we are encouraging people to minimise water use where they can.”
Tauranga obtains its water supply from two streams. There is a treatment plant at each of the streams and water supply for the city is limited to the amount of water that can be treated.
The plants can treat 50,000 cumecs, cubic metres or metric tonnes of water each day. Consumption is presently at 45,000 cumecs, says Graeme.
It is difficult to estimate the peak summer population from water consumption – or waste water use says Graeme.
'I know from experience that you cannot work out population from water consumption. It is much more related to weather conditions over the last few weeks and how long its been since our last decent rainfall, current temperatures and things like that.
'In summer the increase in water consumption tends to be driven by people irrigating gardens and lawns, things like that.
'Two years ago was the highest water consumption we've had for many years. It was a 10 year high, over 50,000 cumecs. The time it happened was about January 21, the second week in January so it wasn't the new year crowd that caused that.”