Kinloch restrictions likely to remain for next 10 days
A sprinkler and outdoor water system ban in Kinloch is likely to remain in place until at least early February.
Head of operations Kevin Strongman said the council was far exceeding its resource consent for water take for the Kinloch water supply, despite the ban being in place since early in January, and it had obligations to Waikato Regional Council to show it had mitigation measures in place.
“We have been monitoring the amount of water use really closely since the ban was put in place but there has been no reduction, in fact it has increased,” he said.
In January 2018, the average daily water volume at Kinloch was 1522 cubic metres. In January 2019, it was 1873 cubic metres.
“When you compare that to this month’s average of 2346 cubic metres, you can see why we have had to take action,” Mr Strongman said.
While there had been development in Kinloch, there was only an additional 76 properties connected to the supply in January compared to June 2018. “Given the average New Zealand family uses between 250 -300 litres of water per person per day, the numbers just don’t stack up when at peak times of the year water use in Kinloch is about 2000 litres per household per day. We can only conclude the increase is due to more water going on lawns and gardens.”
The increased water use also had an effect on the wastewater needing to be treated as every time a toilet was flushed, or water went down the drain, it put additional pressure on the treatment plant increasing the risk of overflow, posing a risk to the environment.
Mr Strongman said he appreciated the situation was not ideal for residents and a lot of work would be done over the next year to ensure water was being used responsibly and sustainably across the whole district.
This would include preparing a water loss strategy, developing a model to better identify the usually resident population and the affect holidaymakers had on water demand, and the development of a water conservation and education plan for the whole district.
“We put restrictions in place as a last resort so we are hoping the community will help us by reducing water use where possible. The best thing people can do is let us know when people are breaking the rules so we can address that on a case-by-case basis,” Mr Strongman said.
People could report the use of sprinklers and outdoor watering system by contacting the customer support centre on 0800 ASK TDC (0800275 832) or reporting it via the website or Antenno mobile app.
“If we all pull together we hope we can remove the restrictions sooner rather than later,” he said.