THE WATER SHORTAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 245, 6 January 1928, Page 8

THE WATER SHORTAGE

NOW that the members of the Water Committee of the City Council have visited the Waitakere and Nihotupu reservoirs and seen for themselves the effect of a short season of dry weather on the supply, their vision may b" 'engthened when they next meet to consider what is necessary ,o meet the requirements of a populous city. Yesterday’s inspection of the dams showed less than 100,000,000 gallons of water impounded at Waitakere.. It is cheerful to know that the wall of this dam is being raised, so that when full it will hold nearly double its present capacity, which is 230,000,000 gallons, and that the work is expected to be completed in about a month’s time., But it would have been more comforting to know that it had been completed a month before the onset of the dry weather, so that a siege could be withstood without restricting citizens in the use of water. The Nihotupu dam contains 300,000,000 gallons, which means that it is half empty. Notwithstanding the dictum of the Water Committee that the city’s daily requirement is 6,000,000 gallons, there is every evidenee that the summer demand is 10,000,000 gallons, or over. The water in the two dams, then, gives only forty days’ supply. And what if there is no reservoir-filling rain “for forty days and forty nights”—which is quite a possibility? Members of the Water Committee are said to be solaced by the knowledge, that there is 70,000,000 gallons of water stored in the auxiliary darn, above the Nihotupu intake—a further week’s supply! They find easy solace, as is the way with men who would lighten the seriousness of their blundering. The committee is to meet in a few days “further to discuss the position.” It should be very plain to it that the plans it has made in the past have been totally inadequate to furnish a generous supply of water—and nothing less than a generous supply will satisfy such a city as this. We want no annuallyrecurring restrictions because of an insufficiency of stored water. The members of the committee must mark this well when they meet. Meanwhile they are the subject of indignant criticism on the part of citizens whose flowers and vegetables are dying for lack of moisture and who are grudged even the taking of a cold bath.