Covirus 19 coronavirus: Auckland under ‘voluntary’ water restrictions as dam levels sink below 50 percent

Auckland is essentially under water restrictions for the first time since the early 1990s, as the region’s storage dams drop below 50 percent amid severe drought.

Watercare Chief Executive Raveen Jaduram told the Herald that the only element missing to make the restrictions official was enforcement, which they were avoiding due to Covid-19.

“We don’t want our staff to go door-to-door, which would normally be the case, but essentially we are now at level 1 restrictions.”

In the absence of compliance, Watercare was asking the Aucklanders to do everything possible to conserve water, including cutting showers to four minutes and avoiding any outdoor use, while continuing essential hygiene measures associated with containing Covid-19. .

Under normal circumstances, the restrictions would enter approximately 51 percent during the fall, Jaduram said.

Amid a dry start to the month and the back of a summer that saw just 35 percent of average precipitation, the city’s storage dams on Thursday fell to 49.7 percent, the first time they fell below 50 percent since the 1993/1994 drought, when storage levels dropped to a terrifying 36 percent.

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The historical average for this time of year is approximately 77 percent.

“It is not a good feeling,” said Jaduram.

Watercare had been encouraging aucklanders to reduce water consumption since February, when storage was approximately 70 percent.

At its peak of use in February, the city was consuming 565 million liters per day, but since then, amid the Covid-19 blockade that has reduced industrial use and calls for voluntary cuts, demand has dropped significantly.

Over the past seven days, usage has averaged about 450 million liters per day.

To reduce pressure on the 10 storage dams spread across the Waitākere and Hunua ranges, Watercare had been extracting its maximum allowable 150 million liters per day from the Waikato River for several months.

But without any significant rainfall to complete the dams, capacity would continue to decrease.

Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said it has been an “incredibly dry stretch”, dating back to late 2019 for Auckland, with the northern areas still under meteorological drought.

Even several fronts in the past few weeks that had ended droughts in other parts of the country had lost Auckland.

The good news, or better, was that the following month or two showed average and even slightly above average rainfall.

“In the coming days, we will see some opportunities for rain, with a decent front moving over the region tomorrow and Saturday. We could see a 20-30mm drop in some places on Monday.”

“Then next week, a disturbance from the subtropics will bring more rain.

“So we could finally be moving away from a series of frequent high-pressure systems into a more typical fall, and continuing through May.”

But Jaduram said it would take “a lot of rain for many days” to get back to where the storage levels should be.

“We’ve had some showers recently, and that suppresses demand. It prevents people from going out and washing their cars or watering the garden.”

“When it rains, we get the double benefit, since people stay inside and our dams are also full.

“But when the weather is good, as it has been, people use more and the dams dry up, and the system really stretches.”

“Our key message is that if we weren’t experiencing Covid-19 we would be in formal constraints. We need to moderate the situation since people are already under stress.”

“But this is a serious situation. This means not doing things like washing your car, watering your garden, really doing everything possible to use the water only for essential purposes.”

“During the Tasmanian Tempest in 2017, we asked people to save 20 liters per day, and we did it. We cannot enforce these restrictions, so we are very confident that the Aucklanders will take action.”

The next level of restrictions would come in if dam levels dropped to 35 percent, and would also involve cuts in the industry.

“But we don’t even want to be thinking about it, and if we all do our part, that won’t happen,” said Jaduram.

Watercare Tips for Aucklanders

• Keep washing your hands regularly

• Keep your showers short: 4 minutes or less.

• Only use your dishwasher or washing machine when they are full

• Do not wash the car

• Do not clean the house or driveway with water