Aucklanders are being asked to reduce their outdoor water usage as the city prepares for more dry weather.
Water dam levels have dropped below a trigger point which sees the city in the “preparing for drought” level in its Drought Management Plan.
Watercare’s chief operations officer Mark Bourne said Auckland’s water usage is higher than usual for this time of year which he suggests is due to people watering their gardens.
“We’re not asking people to stop watering their gardens – we just want everyone to be more mindful of their water use, particularly outdoors.
“Most gardens don’t need to be watered every day.”
Weather forecasts show that April is looking to be drier than expected and Watercare had updated its modelling to assess how this will impact Auckland’s water supply.
“In doing this, we created a ‘worst-case scenario’ which shows if the dry weather was to continue into May, and water usage stayed at current levels, we could hit the trigger level for stage one restrictions in late May,” said Bourne.
“Current forecasts are actually predicting May will be wetter than normal, which would be fantastic, but we know these forecasts can change, and we’re planning accordingly.”
Bourne also suggested people cut the time they spent in the shower.
“If all 1.7 million Aucklanders cut their shower time by just one minute, we’d collectively save about 20 million litres a day.”
Auckland councillor Richard Hills said that Watercare will give them plenty of notice if restrictions are needed at any point.
“The important thing for Aucklanders to remember during these extremely dry months is that we can all help by going easy with our water use.
“Every bit counts.”
NIWA’s Drought Index currently had Auckland in the ‘extremely dry’ range.
“Given how dry the soil is, it will take more than a smattering of rain before we’ll see our dam levels heading in the right direction again,” Bourne said.
“That’s because the first lot of decent rainfall will likely be absorbed by the thirsty soil.
“What we’re hoping for is sustained rainfall to put our dam levels in a more comfortable position.”
Watercare was producing more water at its two Waikato treatment plants to help preserve water stored in the dams.
“We’re also actively addressing leaks in our network, with 19,011 out of 19,051 reported leaks fixed since December.”
