Staff Reporter
Auckland, October 17, 2021
The Auckland Council will consider a recommendation by Watercare, a Council Controlled Organisation to ease the outdoor water restrictions at its meeting on October 21, 2021.
The restrictions have been in force since May 16, 2020.
Indications are that the Council will accept the recommendation since the water levels in the reservoirs are now comfortable, thanks to substantial rainfall the past Winter.
The existing restrictions include prevention of use of sprinklers but allow hoses fitted with trigger nozzles. These were enforced last year due to drought conditions then.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said that he will be advocating for the restrictions to be lifted, which if approved, will come into effect on Saturday, October 23, 2021.
Rainfall boosts water levels
“After a prolonged run of drought and drier-than-normal weather for over two years, we have finally had a good boost in rainfall since September that has seen dam levels rise by over 30 percentage points from 60% in July to 91% now,” he said.
Mr Goff said that with dam levels back to normal, there is sufficient level of certainty that restrictions can be lifted without the need to reverse in the near future.
“I want to thank Aucklanders for their outstanding effort to reduce their water use over the past 17 months. We have saved a colossal amount of water – more than 20 billion litres. And we have developed good water saving habits we want to keep up. This both saves the consumer money and helps our environment,” he said.
According to Mr Goff, the Council supported Watercare to deliver over 100 million litres a day more supply by the first quarter in 2022, to ensure that water supply is guaranteed to meet population growth and drought.
New Water Treatment Plants
“This includes the construction of three new water treatment plants. Combined with the work on the network to reduce leakage which has saved nine million litres a day, this has strengthened the resilience of our water supply,” Mr Goff said.
Watercare Chair Margaret Devlin said that with its recommendation, the CCO has provided Auckland Councillors and Mr Goff with comprehensive information to guide their decision-making including the long-range weather forecast, consumption data, network efficiency information and production volumes at treatment plants.
“At this stage forecasters are predicting slightly wetter-than-normal conditions for summer. Our modelling, based on conservative calculations, gives us confidence that it’s highly unlikely that we would be forced to impose further restrictions later in Summer. Watercare will continue to invest in the resilience of the network, both on the supply and demand side,” Ms Delvin said.
She said that restrictions have served the City well over the past 17 months, particularly over last Summer when usage was significantly down on the previous year.
She encouraged Aucklanders to maintain their water-wise ways.
Collective efforts of Aucklanders
“Collectively, Aucklanders are using on average 36 million litres less each day than they were in 2019 (based on the rolling 12-month average). I know our residential and commercial customers are contributing to this impressive reduction, so thank you for doing your bit. Your savings, together with our work to bring on new water supplies and of course the recent heavy rain, has all helped to get us to the point where we can recommend restrictions be lifted,” Ms Delvin said.
Watercare Liaison Councillor Linda Cooper thanked Aucklanders for their efforts.
“Aucklanders have made a collective effort to reduce water use and council and Watercare have worked hard to increase water supply and resilience. Now we are seeing the benefits through dam levels getting back to normal, meaning we have room to lift restrictions heading into summer. Thanks to everyone for saving and water and please keep up the good work,” Ms Cooper said.
