Water restrictions for Waimea and Wakefield

Friday, 27 January 2023

You can still wash your car and windows, as long as you’ve got a hand-held trigger nozzle on the end of your hose.

People on Tasman District Council’s Waimea and Wakefield water supplies will not be allowed to water lawns, fill or top up pools, spas and water features from Monday, January 30.

The restriction applies also for rural extensions. Waimea includes Richmond, Brightwater, Hope, Redwood 1 and 2 and Māpua water supplies.

Nelson residents living adjacent to Champion Rd, where water is supplied from the Richmond Water Supply Scheme, Wakatu Industrial Estate, Champion Rd and parts of Saxton Road West are also included.

The council’s group manager community Infrastructure Richard Kirby said washing cars, windows and outdoor areas with a hand-held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle, water blaster or bucket was still allowed.

* Tasman taps to tighten up as falling river levels force a return of restrictions

* First water restrictions of the season to come into force in Tasman

In 2020, a part of New Zealand saw 61 days of drought in a row. For many, it was devastating.

“You can also water your flowers, trees, planters every second day only and vege gardens and fruit trees every day with a hand-held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle, watering systems on a timer or a bucket.”

The council applied Phase A water restrictions last Monday.

“The move to Phase B water restrictions is in response to phase A reducing our abstraction limits by 20%,” Kirby said.

“We therefore need to conserve water in order to comply with our consents.

“The stage one water restrictions are being applied to consent users in Motupiko, Tadmor and Waimea Plains water management zones which also come into force from Monday.”

Kirby said the council had been fortunate aquifers and rivers had kept above trigger points, providing a buffer of sufficient water levels.

“However, we have no certainty of significant rainfall in the coming days to hold the river levels up,” he said.

“We believe these initial actions will hopefully avoid the need for large-scale restriction as summer progresses.”

Kirby said the Phase B restrictions would be reviewed later in the week.

He encouraged residents in all areas of the district to conserve water as much as possible.

“Even if restrictions aren’t in place for you, now is the time when we all need to conserve water as much as possible.”

He said water saving tips were available at: tasman.govt.nz/water saving tips

Further information on the water restrictions can be found at: tasman.govt.nz/link/water-restrictions