Water restrictions
What are the different water restriction levels? 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.
We will move to level 3 water restrictions if flows in the Pātea River reduce to less than 556 litres per second at any point over 3 consecutive days.
For commercial users, essential water use means:
- Stopping or reducing activities or services that use water to what’s absolutely required to run the business – if an activity that uses water cannot be stopped and the business remain in operation, can the business safely reduce either the amount of water used or how often the activity takes place?
- Deferring planned projects if they require additional water use, like the installation of concrete or introducing new services that require water, etc.
Businesses that require large amounts of water to remain in operation can stay open under level 3, but they must reduce their water consumption to what’s essential. That may mean some parts of their business, or the services they offer, will need to stop temporarily.
For residential users, essential water use means stopping or reducing activities that use water to what’s absolutely required for the health of people and animals. If residential users cannot stop an activity, they should consider if they can safely reduce the amount of water they use for it, or how often the activity takes place. For example, on a household level, reducing the frequency of washing laundry, not flushing the toilet unless it's really needed, and restricting showers to 5 minutes or less.
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.
Under level 4, high-use commercial operators may need to close.
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.
