Auckland water: Skyrocketing use sparks Watercare warning to residents

Aucklanders are being urged to watch their high water usage. Pictured is the Mangatangi Dam. Photo / Watercare

Watercare is urging Aucklanders to watch their water usage amid growing concerns over the region's "skyrocketing" water use in the last week.

Hot weather in the area saw peak demand records broken three times last week alone as people in the region used what water authorities called "colossal" amounts of water.

The highest volume was 568 million litres used last Wednesday.

It’s going to be a scorcher, up to 27 degrees in Auckland today, and you know what happens in hot weather - we use more...

Posted by Watercare on Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Figures show that the average daily use for this month is already higher than the peak demand record this time last year.

Auckland is expecting a temperature high of 28C today and Friday - and a 27C high the rest of the week - according to the MetService.

Watercare spokeswoman Roseline Klein said: "Almost all of our water treatment plants are working at maximum capacity 24/7 in order to treat and distribute water at a faster rate than it's being used.

"This is challenging to sustain day after day."

Klein said Watercare had changed the way it operated its treated water storage reservoirs to make sure there is more water stored in local suburbs in case of an unplanned outage at a treatment plant - for example, in a power outage.

"Water is precious, especially in a drought," she said.

"We all need to use it wisely so that we can reduce the likelihood of formal restrictions should the dry weather continue."

RAIN MADE NO DIFFERENCE

The rain that fell over the city over the weekend made little to no difference to Auckland's total water storage.

As of today, the city's total water storage stands at 65 per cent. On Saturday, 35mm fell in the southern catchment in the Hunua Ranges, south of Auckland, and 14.5mm of rain fell in the Waitakere Ranges, west of the city.

"While we welcomed the rain last weekend, it wasn't enough to end the drought," Klein said.

"In reality, the uplift in our water storage level only lasted 18 hours because of the rate that people are using water."