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The Waikato River feeds the Lake Karapiro hydro-electric dam, which is operated by Mercury Energy. Mould said moving to water alert level 1 was likely before Christmas and it was about putting people back into that water conservation mode. Councillor Marcus Gower said there had been some “kick back” from people who needed water for their businesses when the restrictions were put in place last summer. He said garden centres and nurseries thought they weren’t informed soon enough, about the water restrictions, and they struggled to manage their stock. “Do we have a campaign where we could talk to nurseries and garden centres, to at least say, hey, we are coming into some water restrictions?” Gower said.