It's United Nations World Water Day March 22nd. This year's theme is 'Water for peace'
This means sprinklers and watering systems can only be used on alternative days (e.g. even street numbers on even days; odd street numbers on odd days) between 6- 8am and 6- 8pm, while hand held hosing can be used any time.
Waipa District Council’s manager, water services Lorraine Kendrick said the combination of consistently high temperatures, lack of rain, and increasing demand had forced the move.
“We are facing different issues throughout the District. The demand in the Cambridge and Pukerimu supply areas are increasing on a daily basis and we are pushing our treatment plants to maintain storage in the reservoirs.
In the Te Awamutu supply the Mangauika stream volume is dropping very quickly and is not keeping up with demand so we are already having to rely on dam storage to supplement supply”.
The weather forecast for the next seven days does not show any sign of rain.
“When making the decision to increase our water alert levels we take a number of factors into consideration including increased temperatures, rain forecasts as well as our infrastructure’s ability to treat and distribute water.
In terms of weather and demand, we can’t fully predict what will happen over the next few weeks but moving to Alert Level Two will help safeguard our water supply for the District.”
Hamilton City and Waikato District will remain on Water Level One.
The Smart Water Starts with You! sub-regional summer campaign aims to make long-term change to how we use water and is a joint venture between Waikato District Council, Hamilton City Council, and Waipa District Council.