There is a "serious chance" Wellington could move to tighter water restrictions later this month as leaks continue to plague the city's water infrastructure.
The decision to increase restrictions for much of the Wellington region was made last week, after water use peaked at 195 million litres on January 9.
The new rules apply to Wellington City, Porirua City, Hutt City, and Upper Hutt City where 44% of treated drinking water is currently being lost to 3102 open confirmed leaks and 817 yet to be confirmed.
Director of Regulatory Services at Wellington Water, Charles Barker said there is a "serious chance" that water restrictions could worsen later this month.
"Our team at Wellington Water are reviewing all the different factors which go into providing Councils [with] recommendations of what the appropriate level of restrictions is," Barker said.
"There is a serious chance as we go through the peak period through to Waitangi, that we may need to go to Level 3," he said.
This increased restriction would impose a ban on all residential outdoor water use, but would not impact how water is used inside the home or for businesses.
He said there is a "generous" amount of water that can be taken, but the issue this year is driven by demand for water from a supply that continues to lose water through leaks.
"The demand is made up two parts, how much people actually use and the significant amount of water loss we have through the leaks."
He said the bill for water infrastructure across New Zealand is "huge", but there has been good discussion about the future of water and how it will be funded.
"Our Chief Executive is on the record saying Wellington alone would be $750 million a year for 10 years to fix our three water infrastructure, that is a significant amount of money," he said.
Barker said water meters are a "hugely valuable tool" for people to understand how much water they're using as well as allowing Wellington Water to discover leaks.
"Wellington Water is willing to participate in any way in any kind of reform that gets us on a more even footing with money."
SHARE ME