WATER SUPPLY LOW

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 82, 31 December 1934, Page 9

WATER SUPPLY LOW

Warning by Wellington City Engineer MORE CARE NEEDED With the whole of the normal dry season still to come the fact that Wellington is now drawing on its storage supplies to make up the daily demand, means that the water supply situation As not reassuring. While there may be no need for real anxiety at present, the continuance of the eight weeks spell of brilliant weather, with next to no rain in the watersheds of the reservoirs and the streams that feed them, is not satisfactory to those who have the interests.of the city as their immediate responsibility.

The facts have to be faced. These are that the body of water in the Wainui and Orongorongo streams has decreased considerably as the result of the long spell of hot weather and the inflow now is not equal to the outflow. That is to say that though there may be about 4,000,000 gallons of water flowing into the dams daily the demand made by the residents within the municipal water district is such that this quantity of water does not satisfy it. It is impossible to curtail supplies by cutting off the water altogether for certain hours of the day, as, on account of the risk of fire, the to be kept “full bore.” The City Engineer, Mr. G. A. Hart, stated yesterday that the storage of water in the three dams —Wainui, the Morton dam, and the Karori dam—is sufficient to last, ’ with care, about thirty days. Probably the lower level of that water in the reservoirs may not be drinkable. This means that there is the greatest need for care and economy in the use of water by every householder. One of the greatest factors of loss at the present time is. the manner in which people are continuing to water their gardens and lawns with unmetered water after they have been notified to desist from doing so. It cannot be helped if such gardens and lawns dry up under the existing conditions. The supply for domestic purposes must be preserved for as long as possible, and that length of time is abbreviated -by people, who in the face of official warnings, continue to use hundreds of gallons nightly and in the early morning upon their gardens and lawns. Good Downpour Needed. The whole situation would, of course, be altered were the district favoured with a good drenching downpour of several hours; but who is to say that this rain will come. December in Wellington is usually a green month, with a fair average rainfall. It is not usually until about the middle of January that the hills begin to brown up under the influence of the summer sunshine, but this year the mid-January conditions commenced in the middle of November, and have continued to the accompaniment of cloudless skies and extremely warm weather up to the present. It was imagined that there would be rain on Friday evening, when the position seemed all set for a thunderstorm—the possibilities of which were mentioned by the Government Meteorologist—but, after a meat smear of rain which affected nothing, the skies cleared once more.

It is the abnormally early hot season and the continued period of hot weather throughout November and December that are contributing to the present conditions. It is the prospect of the warmest and driest season of the year yet to come which makes the City Engineer’s warning regarding the use of water one which everyone should heed.