Drills dig deep for rural water

Farmers and rural homeowners in Wairarapa are digging ever deeper for water as the relentless drought wipes out old and shallow wells throughout the region.
Greater Wellington Regional Council resource adviser Darryl Squires said yesterday there have been 64 bore permit applications to date this financial year, with about half received since November and 11 fielded in the past week alone.
"There has been a spike in applications and some landowners really are desperate for water," he said.
"Someone came in yesterday and needed an application processed urgently. They did get priority for a drill date domestic and stock supply carry more weight than irrigation," he said.
"But we work on the basis of first come, first served."
Mr Squires said there are 2749 registered bores and wells in Wairarapa and although some are abandoned it is the older and shallow bores that are evaporating in the face of the drought.
"There are a pile of notes accompanying applications about bores that are too shallow and depending on locations these are the 4 to 5m jobs.
"They're just not holding up anymore and those landowners are now struggling to keep their water supply up and running," he said.
"Drillers are flat stick out there.
"There are low levels of groundwater right across the region and even though we all know it's dry, there are some who are pretty desperate for water right now."
Applications for a bore permit are now being processed within a week but may take up to 20 days, he said, and before 1980 there was no requirement to have a permit to drill for water.
Wairarapa Drilling owner Tim Pickering said he has been "run off my feet" since Christmas with water drilling work in South Wairarapa.
"It's unbelievable. Bores are going dry after producing for the past 50 years because they're just too shallow. The good times are gone for those shallow bores.
"It's worse in the South Wairarapa and some people are worried and running out of water completely. Most in that situation have good neighbours who've been tiding them over while their permits come through," he said.
"If they haven't got water their own supply and any stock comes first and the grass comes last. It's the same every summer but this year it's a whole lot busier."
Melvyn Griffith, managing director of Hutt-based company Griffiths Drilling, said he has been swamped with Wairarapa inquiries about water bores and some callers have already run dry.
"There are some people over there who haven't had water for three days or more and they just have to wait for their consents and cart in their water," he said.
He said the call on the company for new bores in Wairarapa is spread throughout the region and into Wellington.
"It's not just the shallow bores but the old bores as well that are gasping their last. It doesn't take too much of a drop a couple of hundred millimetres and the pump inlets can't do their jobs. And that's what's happening to a lot of people over there right now."
Mr Griffiths said he has been advising the urgent inquiries to submit an application immediately to hasten the drilling and return of their depleted water supplies.