Due to excessive demand on the Lake Hayes Water Scheme, under the delegated authority of the Queenstown Lakes District Council the QLDC chief executive Duncan Field has activated the QLDC Water Supply Demand Management Bylaw 1999 to enforce a complete ban on irrigation for the scheme commencing from 9am today (Monday 30 January 2006).

"The Bylaw enables the chief executive to use his discretion to put in place measures to ensure the continuation of supply by restricting the use of water," QLDC engineering general manager Mark Kunath said.

Hot conditions had seen the use of water from the scheme escalate over the last week, despite discussions last week with some of the heavier water users (irrigation). The scheme supplies water to 600 households.

"The usage peaked on Saturday evening when the reservoir became dangerously low at 22 percent capacity, losing water at a rate of 5 percent per hour. The designated safety level is 40 percent capacity for fire fighting purposes," Mr Kunath said.

The Council's contractor reduced the pressure but did not shut down the system, which most households would have experienced as severely reduce pressure yesterday and today.

"We became aware this morning that unfortunately some gravity fed households experienced a temporary stop in supply today. The reservoir was restored to 85 percent full this morning and the pressure was restored at 10.30am," Mr Kunath said.

However the high usage still needed to be urgently addressed.

The chief executive had the delegated authority to apply any measure at his disposal to ensure the situation was avoided again until the matter could be considered by members of the Utilities Committee as an urgent item on Wednesday 1 February, 2006.

"At this stage the ban applies to all extraordinary use including swimming pools, non-circulating water features and irrigation," Mr Kunath said.

The ban included all watering systems but excluded the use of a hand held hose.

"You can still use a hand held hose to water your garden and initially one domestic scale sprinkler per property will be allowed but we will be reviewing the use of a sprinkler in 24-hours to ensure the system can cope with the demand created," Mr Kunath said.

Lake Hayes residents should receive a hand delivered notice of the ban this afternoon.

"We are urging residents to optimise watering by watering prior to 7am or after 7pm. All households should conserve water at all times," Mr Kunath said.

For example short showers, recycle grey water for watering, use a bucket to wash vehicles, sensible toilet use, do not leave taps running when brushing teeth etc.

The Bylaw enables the Council to enforce the ban and gave authority to any officer of the Council (Fulton Hogan and QLD Engineering) to whom authority had been delegated by the chief executive to enter any land, building or premise in order to ensure that the provisions of the Bylaw were observed.

"Obviously we don't want to have to take those measures, but in some cases, for example if an irrigation system is computer driven for an absentee landowner, then we have the ability to shut that down," Mr Kunath said.

The Council would be investigating ways to manage the scheme in the future, including the possibility of establishing a second reservoir and ongoing irrigation measures.

"This will also be discussed on Wednesday In the meantime we need residents to work together to ensure that we can supply water to every household through the remainder of the peak dry period," Mr Kunath said.

Meanwhile if anyone had a problem or additional questions they should contact the Council.

The Bylaw would be enforced until further notice.

ENDS

For further information please contact Mark Kunath 03 441 0499 or 0274 649 161

By: Sarah