Water demand continues to cause concern in WBOP

A water conservation sign in the Western Bay of Plenty. Supplied photo.

High water use across the whole Western Bay District is continuing to put pressure on reservoir levels, prompting a reminder to the public to keep conserving water as much as possible.

Council's water warning remains at high across all communities, but restrictions have been avoided to date.

Despite cooler days and a few showers giving some reprieve, Council's Utilities Manager Kelvin Hill says dry conditions will continue over January and February – making the District vulnerable to water shortages and the possibility of restrictions.

'It doesn't take much of a temperature rise in any one day for water use to rise sharply – and even though we have had cloudy, cooler days and some rain – we are certainly not out of the woods.”

However Kelvin says the public has been great at responding to Council's call for water conservation, resulting in reservoir levels being maintained with sufficient capacity to date.

'Thank you to everyone who is heeding our call – it really does make a difference. I urge people to keep their feet on the brake.

'We have another peak of holiday makers coming to the District this month - so January and February are crucial months for everyone to ease up on their water use so we can hopefully avoid bringing in restrictions this summer.”

Reservoirs must maintain a constant 50 per cent minimum water level to meet the daily demands for drinking water.

For more information on how to conserve water visit: https://www.westernbay.govt.nz/transportation-roads-and-water/water/water-conservation

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5 comments

I guess it is too...

Posted on 06-01-2021 14:17 | By morepork

... much to expect an incompetent Council to have made provision for this in their planning? More fun to design a carpark that is likely to fall over, or some sexy apartments for rich people to "revitalize" the CBD, than it is to organize reservoir and water management that can cope with extremes in demand and warming... Barring a 1:10,000 year event, there is no excuse for us to run out of water.


TGA TO RUN US DRY

Posted on 06-01-2021 17:50 | By Blueangel

I have been waiting for this day to come, high water use across the whole Western Bay District is continuing to put pressure on reservoir levels, prompting a reminder to the public to keep conserving water as much as possible. Council’s water warning remains at a high across all communities, but restrictions have been avoided to date. What the hell is going to happen when Tauranga finally starts sucking the water from Te Puke or are they going on bores what happens there you guys (council) you couldn't organize a ???? in a bottle. How dear you talk about water levels stop Tauranga before its too late


Run Dry

Posted on 08-01-2021 06:10 | By Told you

My understanding is that there is plenty of water but the council has the inability to process it quick enough, this has been brought about by lack of planning by allowing more houses to be built but no one thought they required water, hence they are years behind in building treatment plants. Another example of a incompetent Council.


Tom Ranger

Posted on 15-01-2021 12:19 | By Tom Ranger

Well, perhaps it would be better in the long run to run it completely dry...Then the council may be forced to do something which they should have been preparing for for generations. That would then limit their ability to throw wasted money at things that we don't want or need.


Money

Posted on 17-01-2021 12:21 | By Kancho

Yep infrastructure not kept up with demand. So water restrictions are the only option apart from heavy increase in water charges and rates. No amount of complaining will change that its pay up time coming . It's going to take years and lots of money get used to it..


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