Tap into water savings

WATER WISE: CBEC Eco Solutions manager Beau Mallett puts bottles into a toilet cistern to displace the amount of water used in each flush. If half of Whangarei’s households did this, 159 million litres of water could be saved over five years.

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Whangarei Leader

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Whangarei needs to get more creative with its water use to prevent drought restrictions, according to an environmental educator.

CBEC Eco Solutions says the current drought is a good time to look at a range of innovative ideas to help Whangarei households use less water.

The organisation wrote a report on water conservation in Whangarei and presented it to the Whangarei District Council last March.

Spare rainwater tanks, recycling grey water, fixing leaks and water conservation methods are all recommended in the report.

The council's infrastructure and services committee received the report.

But CBEC manager Beau Mallett says he is disappointed more of the report's recommendations have not been acted on.

"All we're really hoping is we can put some education processes in place, start to get the ball rolling and look critically at the water conservation issue."

Mr Mallett says the council is reacting to the drought, rather than being more pro-active.

Education programmes in schools and communities, grey water recycling workshops and rainwater tank subsidies will encourage people to do more, he says.

If some of these were put in place earlier, the district could have been in a better position for this drought, he says.

But the council says it is implementing water conservation practices.

Water services manager Andrew Venmore says at the time the CBEC report was done, the council expected to build a dam at Ngunguru in the near future.

But water management, and lower population growth expected, means the dam is now not thought to be needed for 50 years, he says.

Charging people for water on a cubic metre rate is one of the best conservation methods, says Mr Venmore.

Whangarei households are the fourth lowest water users in the country.

The council is also working to reduce its leaks and lower its water pressures - which is effectively like putting a low-flow showerhead on every tap, he says.

Mr Venmore says many of the water conservation ideas are used in the council's education, which is posted on its website and in water bills.

But he says things like rainwater tanks are expensive to install and come with their own problems.

"The problem we've got at the moment is rainwater tanks around the district are all running out and we are now having to provide town water for all those people to fill up.

"That doesn't mean it doesn't have merit - a lot more analysis needs to be done."

The council's Whau Valley Dam is now 73 percent full.

Mr Venmore says because no one knows for sure when the drought will end, households are still being urged to restrict water use.

- © Fairfax NZ News