Water crisis: Steady as she goes

Spasmodic rain over the Easter period has kept the need for further water supply emergency measures in the Far North at bay.


But the need for water savings remains firmly in place.


Streams and rivers in catchments critical to the council's public water supply schemes rose marginally early last week but by the end of the week the temporary reprieve was over.


"Most of the monitoring points are now showing a downward trend again and we desperately need the rain predicted for later this week. So far there has only been enough rain to maintain the current level of restrictions and the holding situation will not last for very much longer," General Manager for Infrastructure and Assets David Penny said today.


The weather forecasts for this week were encouraging and it was possible there could be a slight easing of some restrictions towards the end of the week.


"Over the last week we have been able to maintain storage reservoirs at reasonable levels and if the trend continues there could be a relaxation of the restrictions on the times tankers can draw water.


"People have generally responded well to the crisis, but we are by no means out of the woods yet," he warned.


The Kaitaia wastewater treatment ponds reached a critical level on Friday and the council was forced to start discharging treated effluent to a bunded area adjacent to the ponds.


"This is a temporary measure until there is sufficient residual flow in the Awanui River to allow the treated wastewater to be discharged to the river again. We have been working closely with the Northland Regional Council and the adjoining neighbour to get this emergency discharge facility in place and the final details were only just sorted out in time to prevent the ponds spilling over the retaining banks," he said.


Meanwhile Principal Rural Fire Officer Lance Johnston has warned that although fire indices have been dropping the fire risk remains high. Conditions were not yet at a point at which the total fire ban could be lifted.