Letter - Water, water everywhere

The incongruous situation of water restrictions is no better illustrated than in the side-by-side Public Notices in the Waikato Times.

The first is a consent application by a grower in the Te Kauwhata/Rangiriri area to take up a total of up to 20,428 cubic metres of water per day for irrigation,(10,060 cubic metres from Lake Waikare and 10,368 cubic metres from Waikato River) and the second, a Hamilton City Council notice of restrictions on water use because the local population have dared to start using their garden hoses again.

Ironically, page two of the same paper shows HCC water consumption last week averaged about 60 million litres per day, which when converted is 60,000 cubic metres. Interestingly,a single commercial grower deems it necessary to use about 20,000 cubic metres of water to irrigate their crops per day, and yet the HCC deems that 60,000 cubic metres for all uses by the entire Hamilton City, per day, warrants restrictions. I have no beef with the grower seeking to use water for crop irrigation, only with the HCC attitude to water use, and their constant call for conservation.

One gets the feeling the drips in council think the general public are wet behind the ears.

ROSS MANDERSON

Hamilton 

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