Auckland facing water restrictions

Aucklanders are being asked to cut their water use even further than before. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A regional water supplier is asking Auckland residents to make further savings despite a reported drop of 1.5 percent in the past week.

Watercare Services networks manager Mark Bourne said the region's storage lakes are 58.8 percent full, Radio New Zealand reports.

The lake levels are about 10 percent lower than the normal average for this time of year, and Aucklanders are being urged to cut water use by a further four percent.

Mr Bourne said lake levels will drop to about 50 percent by the end of May if there is not much rainfall.

He warned that if lake levels remained at half capacity by September, it would be likely that restrictions would be imposed.

Mr Bourne told the Herald earlier this month that since February Watercare had been taking as much water as it could from the Onehunga underground reservoir, and its Waikato treatment plant was running at maximum capacity.

He said the company was trying to leave as much water in the lakes as possible for next summer.

"What we are a little concerned about is if this really unseasonably dry weather continues into winter ... the lake levels coming into next summer will be significantly down from where they would normally be."

56.6mm of rain fell at Auckland Airport in the first three months of the year, delivering the region's driest quarter since records began in 1960.