Heavy rain ends Whangārei water restrictions

Andrew Venmore at the Whau Valley Dam which is now 71 percent full, thanks to recent rain which has also lifted water restrictions in Whangārei. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Recent rain lifted levels in a Whangārei dam by more than 10 per cent in just one day, ending water restrictions put in place at the thick of region's drought.

As of 8am today, water restrictions came down from Level 3 to Level 1 which effectively means there are no limits in how much reticulated water people can use.

However, the Whangārei District Council is still urging people to voluntarily save the precious resource as the long range forecast for Northland is average or below average rainfall until September.

Water services manager Andrew Venmore said Whangārei had quite a lot of rain towards the end of May and between 10pm on Wednesday and 1am on Thursday that did both district's dams a huge favour.

Whau Valley dam was 71 per cent full at midday yesterday while the water level at Wilsons Dam was 66 per cent.

"At the end of May, the Whau Valley Dam was 44 to 45 percent full but the level has increased by more than 60 percent since. The rain on Wednesday night and in the preceding days made a lot of difference to dam levels," Venmore said.

The capacity at Wilsons Dam is 2.4 million cu metres while Whau Valley Dam holds 1.8m cu metres of water.

"We're not out of the woods though but we just believe that keeping restrictions on isn't necessarily warranted. We're asking people to voluntarily watch their water use."

During heavy rain, Venmore said saturated catchments tended to fill up quite quickly as has happened with Whau Valley Dam.

He thanked all everyone for doing their bit in conserving water which, together with rain and cold weather, resulted in a savings of 25 per cent.

Whangārei received 66.2mm of rain on May 31, 35.2mm on June 1 and 49.2mm on Wednesday.NIWA this week said it was important for Northlanders to know that even though it was raining outside, it didn't mean the drought was over.

Northland needed several months more rain to get back up to normal and to fill up rivers and dams, NIWA said.

In the Far North district, Level 3 water restrictions for Omanaia-Rawene were reduced to Level 2 from yesterday.It means all Far North District Council water supplies are now operating on Level 2 restrictions.

The Far North District Council is now focused on developing new permanent water supplies for Kaitaia and Kaikohe, the communities hardest-hit by the recent drought.

In Kaipara, level 2 water restrictions are in force in Dargaville and Glinks Gully while Maungaturoto, Mangawhai and Ruawai continue to stay at Level 4 at this stage.