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Press Release – Watercare Services On what is normally Aucklands highest water consumption week of the year, Watercare is urging its customers to keep up the great work and continue using water wisely. Watercare head of servicing and consents Mark Bourne, who is leading the organisations …
On what is normally Auckland’s highest water consumption week of the year, Watercare is urging its customers to keep up the great work and continue using water wisely.
Watercare head of servicing and consents Mark Bourne, who is leading the organisation’s drought response, says the first week of February is traditionally the biggest week of the year when it comes to Aucklanders’ water use.
Wednesday, 3 February 2021, 8:21 am
On what is normally Auckland’s highest water
consumption week of the year, Watercare is urging its
customers to keep up the great work and continue using water
wisely.
Watercare head of servicing and consents Mark
Bourne, who is leading the organisation’s drought
response, says the first week of February is traditionally
the biggest week of the year when it comes to Aucklanders’
water use.
“Last year was a little different because
we were in the midst of a drought, and water use skyrocketed
throughout the month of February because there was just no
rain. We were breaking record after record, with water use
Supplied
Hays Creek Dam in the Hūnua Ranges which will supply Auckland with six million litres of water a day from next week.
A mothballed dam in the Hūnua Ranges will start supplying six million litres of water a day to the Auckland network from next week as part of a $68 million dollar Watercare project. The Hays Creek Dam was completed in 1967 and can hold 1.1 gigalitres of water. It is the smallest of the Hūnua dams and was originally designed solely to supply water to Papakura. In June 2020 Watercare announced it planned to upgrade the dam and build a new water treatment plant in nearby Red Hill so it could reintegrate it into the Auckland water supply network.
In late January, Aucklanders used as little as 402 million litres in one day. Currently, Aucklanders can use mains water outdoors only when using a trigger nozzle on hand-held hoses, a summer restriction which replaced an outdoor ban during winter. “The real savings though have come through education, not just with residential customers but with commercial customers as well,” said Mark Bourne, Watercare’s head of servicing and consents.
DAVID WHITE/STUFF
The Upper Nihotupu Dam hit near-record lows in May 2020 The rising levels of alarm in early 2020 as the drought bit, was the first time in nearly 20 years that Aucklanders had been confronted with the reality that water is not unlimited.