Letters to the editor: Tauranga deserves answers on water supply

Use of hoses in Tauranga is restricted in summer. Photo / Dean Purcell

We have been told that it is the reduced water flow, due to less rain, of the three rivers that provide Tauranga's water supply that is responsible for the harsh water restrictions that we are now facing (News, January 6).

The question that I would therefore like to ask Tauranga's water department, is if we have been aware of reduced water flows for coming up three years, why have we not built up more storage capacity over this time?

Another aspect, of course, is that Tauranga's population has significantly increased over the past 5-10 years but, other than commence building the Waiāri water treatment plant, little else seems to have been done in order to increase water capacity or water storage ability.

Surely the Kaimai Range offers the potential for water storage capacity, as would supply from the Wairoa River and also additional treated water storage tanks could have been built on the Cambridge Rd water storage tank facility, but on the face of it none of these appear to have been considered.

It is time for the water department to tell us what they are planning to do in order to resolve this increasing problem.

Mike Baker
Bethlehem

Reservoirs overdue

Hear-hear to Kelvin O'Hara (Letters, January 11).

A reservoir below every building to capture the heaviest rainfall recorded for use, as he describes, is long overdue to catch up with Germany, which has legislated accordingly for the past 30-odd years.

Smothering good land with roads and buildings and sending bountiful rainfall to waste is pathetic to say the least. Gardens will succeed far better with unchlorinated water. God help us.

B Anderson
Bethlehem

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