New water supply indicator for the "dry" summer ahead

A new water supply indicator is available on the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s website for people to check how our water sources are holding up this summer.

Cr Nigel Wilson, Chair of Greater Wellington’s Social and Cultural Wellbeing Committee, says that launching the new indicator at the start of summer is timely as the backup water storage for Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Wellington has been halved and the summer climate outlook is for average to low rainfall and river flow.

“Now’s the time for people to keep a close eye on the water situation. Although November’s water use and rainfall were okay, the climate predictions reinforce that with one lake down, people need to prepare for a ‘dry’ summer.”

Cr Wilson says that making small changes can make a big difference – and will help to reduce the chance of severe water restrictions during the warmer, drier summer months.

“We’ve already asked people to prepare for a dry summer by doing things like fixing leaks and mulching gardens. I’d also like to remind people about other effective ways to save hundreds of litres of water, such as fitting a ‘trigger nozzle’ on your hose, watering carefully or putting a filled 1-litre bottle of water in the cistern of single-flush toilets.”

The water supply indicator has a scale from ‘good’ down to ‘extreme’ (when water levels are extremely low), to summarise how well Greater Wellington’s main sources of water are holding up compared to previous summers. Greater Wellington will update the indicator regularly to reflect changing flow rates and levels in our rivers, aquifer and the operational storage lake, as well as the changing levels of water use.

Visit www.gw.govt.nz/water-supply-situation-update for the water supply indicator. The indicator will also be used in online advertising and published in newspapers.

For more information on the storage lakes' upgrade project and tips on ways to save water, visit www.gw.govt.nz/water.


Background to lakes’ upgrade

Greater Wellington supplies bulk water to Porirua, Wellington, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt. The water comes from rivers, an aquifer and the Stuart Macaskill storage lakes.
The Stuart Macaskill water storage lakes are being upgraded to increase their strength in an earthquake and to boost storage capacity. Much of the work requires the lakes to empty. The southern lake is currently empty with work on it likely to finish in mid-2012. The northern lake will be empty during summer 2012/ 2013. If there are any delays, a lake may be empty during summer 2013/14.