Waikato River levels prompt alert

Waikato residents are warned to watch out for rising river levels over the weekend.

The Waikato River is expected to rise further with rain forecast for the weekend and hydro storage lakes near full.

Environment Waikato is expecting 60mm of rain over 18 hours.

EW is working with hydro company Mighty River Power to release water from Lake Taupo and Lake Karapiro to create more storage as a precaution.

The Taupo control gates provide some ability to regulate the amount of water flowing down the Waikato River, but there is little storage space available in the hydro dams on the river. Controlling the water flows through the Waikato River hydro system can help to alleviate flooding further downstream.

"Lake Taupo is still 13cm below its maximum control level, but we need to create some storage because catchments are saturated and the lake's tributaries will respond quickly to any rain," EW emergency management officer Adam Munro said.

He said people needed to be alert to the possibility of rapidly rising streams and rivers. "We're keeping a very close eye on rainfall and river levels and working with Mighty River Power to carefully balance flows through the upper, middle and lower Waikato."

On average, just over 700,000 litres of water per second flows down the river but it is currently flowing at three times its average rate. EW staff are checking pumps, floodgates and stopbanks, and monitoring rainfall and river levels.

Information on rainfall and river levels and situation reports on weather are available on www.ew.govt.nz.

* Ji Soo Kim is a Wintec journalism student.

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