The use of sprinklers and unattended irrigation systems has been banned throughout the Whakatāne and Ōhope urban areas until further notice.

As from 13 March, garden watering can only be undertaken with a hand-held hose, between the hours of 6.00am and 8.00am and 7.00pm and 9.00pm, on alternate days. Properties with an ‘odd’ street number (such as 3 or 23) can use a hand-held hose for garden watering on odd days of the month (March 15 or 17, for example). Properties with ‘even’ street numbers can only water on even days of the month (such as March 16 or 18).

Whakatāne District Council Infrastructure General Manager Tomasz Krawczyk says the aim of the restrictions is to build upon the voluntary conservation measures most people in the community have already adopted and ensure that essential supplies can be maintained for households and emergency purposes.

“The flow in the Whakatāne River is extremely low at present and until the current drought breaks, we think it’s necessary to ban the use of garden sprinklers and other unattended irrigation systems on any residential properties supplied by the Whakatāne and Ōhope Water Supply Schemes,” he says.

“Salt water intrusion at high tides is restricting pumping into our water treatment plant and while we are installing an extension to our emergency upstream intake, it will be some days before we can evaluate whether that overcomes the immediate problem. Even then, if the river level continues to drop, it’s likely that the salinity problem will extend further upstream, which would put us back to square one.”

The Council is also encouraging households and businesses to undertake a range of voluntary water conservation measures. Some simple water conservation tips include:

• Don’t wash cars or boats unless absolutely necessary and bucket-wash if required
• Don’t refill or top-up swimming pools
• If you know you have leaking taps, fix them now
• Flush toilets sparingly
• Don’t use your bath and cut your shower time down as much as possible
• Turn taps off when they’re not required
• While you’re waiting for hot water to flow through to showers or taps, catch the unused water in a bucket for use in washing machines or other purposes