"Water is our most precious resource and everyone needs to be conscious about every litre used – especially in times of drought."
One Dannevirke business that is feeling the effects of the drought is the Mitre 10 garden centre.
Manager Judy Partridge says the garden centre's water supply is on a metre and a close watch is kept on the amount of water being used.
"We are being careful and making sure we are not wasting any water."
The garden centre plants are irrigated through an overhead watering system, but Partridge said staff may have to start hand-watering every single plant.
"That would be a massive task but it may have to come to that."
Partridge says they have drastically reduced the amount of seedlings they are buying in.
"Sales are well down, very few vegetable seedlings, flower seedlings and potted colours are going out the door. We get the odd lettuce seedling or the odd shrub bought as a gift going out the door but that's about it."
Already staff were having to throw away seedlings that are past their best.
Partridge said if the drought continued it could have a major impact.
"By cutting back on the stock we can carry it then has the effect of taking time to get the stock levels back up."
She said last week she bought in less than 17 trays of seedlings, but she suspected none would be bought in if the situation didn't change.
Partridge said the bigger shrubs and trees that the garden centre stocked were not quite as affected as the seedlings.
"They are kept in much bigger pots so don't dry out as quickly and we can also feed them some liquid fertiliser so they can last for months."
Generally the garden centre gets a regular hosing out, but that has stopped.
"No cleaning is being done, but we can live with that."
Partridge said some customers were querying why staff were still watering plants.
"You can understand that they are upset, but we have to have an answer for them and we have to be mindful of that."
On its Facebook page the Tararua District Council revealed what it termed a great example of water conservation in the community.
"Kildrummie Nursery has been making every effort to reduce its water usage while maintaining business.
"On an average day they used 13m3 watering their garden with a sprinkler system. By simply moving plants onto pallets under shade and hand watering the garden, they have managed to reduce their water usage to 4 cubic metres per day - a huge daily saving.
"It is really awesome to see businesses and residents getting on board with conservation efforts, so thanks to everyone doing their part."
New World owner Bruce Jenkins said he had noticed an increase in sales of bottled water and he had brought in extra stocks.
He said the store had a social responsibility to conserve water but it was difficult when there were strict hygiene regulations that had to be adhered to within the food preparation areas such as the butchery and the delicatessen.
He said there were contingency plans in place but he said if the town ran out of water it would be hard to keep the store open.
