Water ban in place for whole Te Puke area
A water use ban, effective immediately, is in place over the greater Te Puke area (Eastern Zone) of the Western Bay District.
This is a complete ban on hand-held hosing and sprinklers due to increasing demand on Western Bay of Plenty District Council’s reservoirs from consumers in the Eastern Water Zone. This ban also applies to all properties that irrigate crops.
The ban will be in place for several weeks, says Council’s Utilities Manager Kelvin Hill.
“Given the current weather predictions of no or little rain, and unless conservation efforts improve considerably, we have no choice but put restrictions on the eastern zone.”
Council is notifying properties in No 1 Road advising that water pressure reduction valves (PRV Units) will be put in place on their properties to help manage the network.
“Water levels in our reservoirs are absolutely critical and people simply do not appear to be heeding our pleas to conserve,” says Kelvin.
“What people need to understand is that, while there is water in the ground, we have to be able to treat and pump that water into our reservoirs overnight in order to supply customers during the day.
"At the moment, due to the extremely high demand, we are not managing to get enough water in our reservoirs overnight to sustain the capacity to maintain our reservoir levels.
“Council staff have identified areas of the District where people aren’t showing adequate levels of water conservation – and we are taking measures to change that.”
Other zones in the Central and Western Zones (from Te Puna to Waihi Beach) continue to be on high alert to conserve, but restrictions are not yet in place.
“We appreciate that many of our residents are already doing their bit to conserve water,” says Kelvin. “Let’s continue to do so – but with even more focus on how we use every drop.”
