Dry weather starts to hurt in Northland

Many Northland homes are running on empty as dry weather starts to bite into water sources.

While councils are keeping a watchful eye on river and stream levels, water carriers are rushed off their feet trying to keep up with demand as tanks in many rural areas start to run out.

Far North District Council water engineer Simon Thorpe said water supplies to Opononi, Rawene and Kaikohe were low and water use there would soon be restricted.

From midnight on April 20, nobody in those areas will be permitted to use hoses or sprinklers. Kaitaia is also running at a "marginal level".

Mr Thorpe said the district needed a "fair walloping" of rain to restore supplies.

"If we don't get any significant rain by the end of the month it will be getting very tight."

Streams and rivers that supplied water were dropping close to their minimum allowable flow.

Opononi's supply came from the Waiotemarama Stream which was last week running at about 10.7 litres per second, only a fraction higher than the 10 litres a second the council was permitted to let it drop to.

Options to further reduce consumption included banning bulk- water tankers, reducing water pressure, and switching off the supply at certain times of the day.

Whangarei's Wai Ora Contracting owner Phil Pompey said that, since Easter, he had been hauling water to coastal properties seven days a week from early in the morning until late at night.

"At the moment I've got a backlog till Tuesday next week. I'm hauling 10-12 loads a day."

He said people who were on the verge of running out got priority, particularly if they had young families.

Each trip delivered 10,000 litres at a cost depending on distance from the fill-up point near Okara Park, Whangarei.

He said most loads were destined for the Tutukaka Coast, Pataua North and South, and the Whangarei Heads area.

A load to Tutukaka cost about $210.

MetService weather spokesman Bob McDavitt said the Far North had had a "very dry start to autumn".

He expected some rain to fall around Anzac weekend and, by late autumn, the region would probably have received normal or higher-than-normal rainfall.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)