Arrowtown Residents asked to Conserve Water

clean water
Date:
Dec 23, 2017

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) is asking residents in Arrowtown to conserve water as water is currently being taken from the reservoir faster than it can be replenished. This request is to attempt to prevent the need for water restrictions.

QLDC Chief Engineer Ulrich Glasner explains that there are a number of ways to help when demand is greater than the system can supply.

“There are many simple things we can do to conserve water and if we all start doing one or two of them now, hopefully we’ll see a water restriction-free summer,” says Mr Glasner.

Mr Glasner says an hour a day of irrigation was considered a fair share of total water for the day. He recommended people also use timers to turn their irrigation systems on between midnight and 6.00am when demand on the water supply was at its lowest.

There are a number of simple ways people can conserve water, these include:

  • Water gardens by hand rather than setting a sprinkler.
  • Use a simple timer for your sprinkler. Water your lawn for an hour between midnight and 6.00am, when demand on the water supply is low.
  • Check the arc of your sprinkler and make sure you’re watering the garden or lawn, not the path and driveway.
  • Wash dishes and clothes when you have a full load.
  • Take shorter showers: shaving a minute from your daily shower can save up to 18 litres. Most mains-pressure showers use 9 to 18 litres of water every minute, so more than five minutes in the shower could be using more water than you'd need for a bath.
  • Check for and fix leaks: A leaking toilet may not be obvious, but it can waste thousands of litres of water in a year