Water restrictions

Why we have them

We get our water from the Pātea River, and during the summer months when we have extended periods of dry weather and low rainfall the Pātea River levels can become low.

When this happens our resource consent requires us to reduce how much we take for town supply. There are two steps to our water conservation efforts.

If flow drops below 780 litres per second, we supplement what we take from the Patea river with water from the Konini Stream and implement water restrictions (odds and evens system) to ensure we can stay on top of demand and leave enough in the rivers to ensure we don’t cause harm to the river’s ecosystem.

If the river levels drop further and flow drops below 540 litres per second for three days in a row then we need to implement a total water ban. Despite the name, this doesn’t mean that we can’t use any water. During a total ban, water use should be limited to essential use. This is human consumption and hygiene as well as animal welfare.

The most notable no-no under this setting is the watering of gardens as this activity swallows up enormous amounts of water. While we all appreciate a green lawn and a healthy veggie beds, when water is short, it is important to use it where it matters most and leave enough for the health of the streams we take it from.

It’s important to note that restrictions aren’t put in place because of the amount of water being used by residents and commercial properties, but because of the level of water available in the river.

The odds and evens system

When we impose water restrictions on our town supplies, this includes a ban on sprinklers, irrigation systems and unattended hoses.

As part of the odds and evens system, handheld hoses may be used depending on your house number.

Houses with even numbers can use a hand-held hose only on even numbered days; and
Houses with odd numbers can use a hand-held hose only on odd numbered days.

Why water conservation is important

Taranaki doesn’t have a never-ending supply of fresh water. Our water is a taonga (‘a treasure’) and we need to work together to look after it, especially over the dry months. Most of the water we rely on during these dry period is stored on the mounga, either in the form of snow, or as water in the soils. Once the snow has melted and the soils have drained, our streams start running low.

By adopting a water efficient lifestyle, we can reduce our impact on the environment (taking less water from our rivers and streams) and waste less of a limited resource.

One of the easiest ways to support with our water conservation efforts is by turning off taps and fixing any leaking taps and pipes on your property.

Save water with our easy tips!

FAQs

Are water restrictions happening regularly because we have too many people using our water supply?

Water restrictions occur when river levels drop and that’s influenced by natural environmental factors, like the weather. Under our resource consent, when Pātea River levels drop below a certain point, we need to reduce the amount we take for the town supply to protect the health of the river, and because of that we move to restrict people’s use of water.

The number of domestic and commercial users doesn’t directly influence the need to move to water restrictions (as that’s based on the river levels). However, if Stratford keeps growing, we, as a community, may need to be more efficient with our water. Looking at when and how people are using water, it’s clear that a lot of the additional demand is being used to maintain gardens and lawns.

Why are water restrictions needed when it rains so much in Taranaki?

We may have a higher level of rainfall than some areas of the country, but most of our rainfall happens in the cooler months and our peak demand is in summer.

Snow-melt is actually a key ingredient of our summer supply, coming in from the top of Taranaki Mounga down to the bottom of the national park. We don’t have a lot of natural water storage available and when it’s dry, and the snow is all gone, river levels drop.

Can you store more water, so we don’t need restrictions when it’s dry? Or look for another water supply?

We currently have two 4 million litre reservoirs in Stratford and smaller ones in Midhirst and Toko, but while reservoirs have a role to play, they’re extremely expensive to build and operate and they won’t be able to hold enough water to get us through long, dry periods.

Finding other sources of water is very costly too, and there’s a lot we can all do to make our existing supply go further, before investing large amounts of ratepayer funds into building and operating new water treatment plants and pipelines.

When it comes to efficient water use, we expect Universal Water Metering to have a positive effect when it’s introduced in Stratford. Since Universal Water Metering began for those using the Midhirst and Toko supplies, we’ve been able to do things like identify leaks, saving a significant amount of water.

What happens if river levels continue to drop?

We have 4 levels of water restrictions. As we move to higher levels, based on river-flow, we have to further reduce the supply we take from the Pātea River. That means there’s less water available for us all to use.

Level 1 - Total ban on the residential use of sprinklers, irrigation systems and unattended hoses. Partial restriction on use of hand-held hoses (using the odds and evens street address system).
Level 2 - Total ban on the residential use of sprinklers, irrigation systems, handheld hoses, and water blasters.
Level 3 - All customers (residential and commercial) are restricted to essential water use only.
Level 4 - Shutdown or scaling back of industry/operations that require a lot of water. At this level, the district would experience an economic impact.