It's time to get serious with water restrictions

South Taranaki residents are being urged to get serious when it comes to unnecessary water use.

With this summer’s constant dry weather, river levels are lowering each day and the threat of drought conditions is looming.

South Taranaki District Council works delivery manager Rahul Sharma says that while we remain on partial water restrictions, we’re asking residents to take extra precautions so we can get through the next six weeks without having to introduce a full water ban (essential water use only).

“The odds and evens system will remain in place (hand held hoses can be used at even numbered houses on even numbered calendar dates, and odd numbered houses on odd numbered calendar dates),” says Rahul. “But residents need to restrict this water use to 30 minutes in the evening.”

Watering of lawns is now banned, along with unattended hoses, sprinklers and irrigation systems. Using water blasters for anything other than essential work is also not allowed – if you need to use a water blaster, please call Council on 0800 111 323 and let us know.

“Please continue to check your property for leaks and fix them as soon as possible,” says Rahul. “And let us know if you see a leak on the Council system too.”

This summer is one of the driest we’ve seen in seven years, with Pātea recording only 61% of typical rainfall between 1 November and 31 January while the monitoring site at Glenn Road in Kaūpokonui was even less with just 45% of the usual amount of rain.