Hamilton and Waipa will move to Water Alert Level One restrictions from Thursday 17 December 2020.
Moving to Water Alert Level One means sprinklers must only be used between 6am to 8am and 6pm to 8pm daily, while hand-held hosing can still be done at any time.
Hamilton City Council’s City Waters Manager Maire Porter says a number of factors are considered before water alert levels are put in place. We closely monitor water use, weather predictions and trends from previous summers to guide how we manage water, says Porter.
NIWA projections for the upcoming summer in the Waikato region are for hot and humid weather and with a severe meteorological drought earlier this year and less rainfall in 2020, the two councils have opted to take a proactive approach this summer.
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A concept plant of a rain garden which could be used to filter out contaminants heading into Lake Te Koo Utu. Feedback to the council’s concept plan for the lake, completed in May, showed public support to sort out the lake’s ongoing water quality problems. Regional council monitoring revealed the lake had elevated levels of nitrogen when measured against regional and international guidelines. Research suggested stormwater from nearby homes and roads for 50 years or more, was to blame for the elevated nutrients and contaminant levels in the lake.
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A map showing stage 1, where the rain gardens and propriety devices could be deployed around Lake Te Koo Utu.
Lawrence Gullery/Stuff
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.