NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Brian Rudman: Beware expert solutions to water crisis

Brian Rudman
By Brian Rudman
Columnist·NZ Herald·
14 Mar, 2017 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Talk of heavy rain made climate change sound like something to welcome, not worry about. Illustration / Peter Bromhead

Talk of heavy rain made climate change sound like something to welcome, not worry about. Illustration / Peter Bromhead

Brian Rudman
Opinion by Brian Rudman
Brian Rudman is a NZ Herald feature writer and columnist.
Learn more

Following the Great Drought of 1994, when Aucklanders were left with just five weeks of water supply left in the main Hunua Ranges dams, the big focus has been on future-proofing against a repeat performance.

After a year long inquest, the solution arrived at was a giant faucet connected to the mighty Waikato River.

This, agreed the boffins, would ensure Aucklanders a guaranteed water supply up to a one in 200 year calamity.

Last weekend, just 23 years later, calamity came a-knocking. But it was not the one all the experts advised us to protect against.

Yesterday, while browsing through the documents that gushed forth from the post-1994 inquiry, what stands out is the fixation on drought, as the devil to defeat.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Which was only natural. At a time when the muddy bottoms of the mighty Hunua dams were dangerously close to the surface, and Aucklanders were being told to stick a brick in their toilet cisterns to save water, nobody was warning of Biblical-scale downpours in future times, overfilling the lakes, not just with water, but with debris and filter-clogging silt.

To the Beca Carter consultants, the water from the Hunua Ranges water reserve was the gold standard.

In a wide-ranging investigation into 96 potential additional water sources - towing icebergs from Antarctica at $8 a cubic metre being one - two additional dam sites in the Hunuas scored highest when it came to "raw water quality" and "risk of contamination."

This because "these options are within completely protected catchments and hence have a low risk of contamination."

The reports do acknowledge that global warming was occurring and cautiously mumbled "that annual rainfall in the Auckland area is likely to increase by between 0 and 10 per cent per annum over the next 40 years."

Discover more

New Zealand

That's not orange juice, that's your water

10 Mar 01:22 AM
New Zealand

Water crisis: Not saving enough yet

11 Mar 12:42 AM
New Zealand

Keep saving water! Restrictions remain

12 Mar 10:28 PM
New Zealand

Aucklanders fail to save enough water

13 Mar 09:20 PM

They also noted that climate modelling suggested that the warming of Auckland would be "associated with an increase in the frequency of heavy rainfall."

However, in a report on how to protect against a one in 200 year drought, talk of heavy rain made climate change sound like something to welcome, not worry about.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

One lesson of 1994, reinforced again by the weekend's scare in the Hunuas, was the risk of storing our water in too few baskets. Back in 1994, 63 per cent of Auckland's water came from the Hunua Ranges and 31 per cent from Waitakere Ranges.

Today the Waikato River supplies up to 150 million litres a day, so it was a surprise to see Watercare chief executive Raveen Jaduram saying that the Ardmore Water Treatment Plant, which processes the Hunua water, still provides up to two thirds of Auckland's water.

Of course, with Auckland's rapid population growth over the past two decades, it was inevitable that Waikato water was quickly going to graduate from being the back-up emergency source, to a vital addition in the supply chain.

In 2002, when it came on stream, it was sucking 50 million litres a day out of the Waikato.

During the 2013 drought this more than doubled to 125 million litres a day, providing 30 per cent of the region's needs.

Currently, Watercare has a consent to extract 150 million litres a day, and is seeking the right to take an additional 200 million litres in the future.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The reality is, outside the Hunua and Waitakere forest reserves and the Waikato River, Auckland water supply options are limited. Other natural resources are small.

Desalination is expensive and the reprocessing of storm and waste water, though feasible, is unlikely to be palatable to either consumers or politicians.

Mayor Phil Goff, as political leaders tend to do in an emergency, has put on a grave face and demanded an inquiry. Fair enough.

The questions he puts are ones we'd all like answered. In particular, can the Ardmore filter plant be upgraded to better handle another such event?

But let's not spend-up large on outside experts. The latter didn't forewarn, back in the 1994 inquest, of the possibility of last weekend's silt-stirring weather bomb. Why bring them in now to state the obvious.

Despite the scare, water is still flowing and drinkable .... Just. Now it's up to Watercare, to guard against a repeat performance.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
OpinionUpdated

Audrey Young: Trevor Mallard's moa comments prove weirdly prescient

10 Jul 08:56 PM
New Zealand

It's international Fry-Day celebrating the mighty French fry

live
New Zealand

Fresh flood threat as thunderstorms, gales lash north; south braces for another deluge

10 Jul 08:42 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
Fresh flood threat as thunderstorms, gales lash north; south braces for another deluge
New Zealand

Fresh flood threat as thunderstorms, gales lash north; south braces for another deluge

10 Jul 08:42 PM
UK, France agree on new migrant return scheme amid Channel crisis
World

UK, France agree on new migrant return scheme amid Channel crisis

10 Jul 08:39 PM
‘Are you having a laugh?’: Boss’ text to former employee goes viral
Lifestyle

‘Are you having a laugh?’: Boss’ text to former employee goes viral

10 Jul 08:30 PM
'Never even dreamed': Swiatek surprised by Wimbledon success
Tennis

'Never even dreamed': Swiatek surprised by Wimbledon success

10 Jul 08:29 PM
'Not unexpected': Integrity watchdog's first year sees surge in complaints
Sport

'Not unexpected': Integrity watchdog's first year sees surge in complaints

10 Jul 08:15 PM

Latest from New Zealand

‘A lot of rain’: Serious flooding, slips concerns as yet-another storm bears down
live

‘A lot of rain’: Serious flooding, slips concerns as yet-another storm bears down

10 Jul 09:02 PM

Electrical storms are set to hit at evening rush as Auckland braces for 16 hours of rain.

British ship that went aground 160-years-ago washes up at Canterbury rivermouth

British ship that went aground 160-years-ago washes up at Canterbury rivermouth

10 Jul 09:00 PM
Premium
Audrey Young: Trevor Mallard's moa comments prove weirdly prescient

Audrey Young: Trevor Mallard's moa comments prove weirdly prescient

10 Jul 08:56 PM
It's international Fry-Day celebrating the mighty French fry

It's international Fry-Day celebrating the mighty French fry

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search