High water use prompts urgent call to conserve

Hastings residents are being strongly urged to conserve water in an effort to avoid having to impose Level 3 water restrictions, possibly by the end of the week if usage does not reduce.

At the moment, Level 2 water restrictions are in place, which means sprinklers and hoses can only be used between 6am and 8am and 7pm and 9pm on alternate days – even numbered houses can water on even days of the month and odd numbered houses on odd days of the month.

A Level 3 restriction would see a full sprinkler ban, with only hand-held hoses able to be used on alternate days between 6am and 8am, and 7pm and 9pm.

On the back of a run of hot weather, consumption has rocketed across all Hastings District Council’s supplies and residents are asked to reduce their non-essential water irrigation and use.

“We hope our communities will respond positively to avoid the need for further restrictions and we will be closely monitoring use over the next few days,” says council’s three waters manager Brett Chapman.

“Our water is taken from the aquifer – not only do we need to conserve it for our household use, we need water for the crops that our local economy relies on and to ensure our streams and rivers do not become too depleted.”

What council is doing to reduce its water use:

• Irrigation is being restricted to sports fields only for the safety of sports players
• Roundabout gardens and hanging baskets are on timers to operate at off-peak times.                                              

Ways we can all conserve water include:

• Not washing cars, or only washing the windows
• Leaving lawns to brown off
• Keeping grass longer by mowing the lawns with the blade lifted up a notch
• Taking shorter showers
• Waiting until you have a full load for the clothes washing machine
• Putting off topping up swimming pools and using a cover to minimise evaporation.

 Taking small actions like this can add up to significant water saving each day. You can find more water conservation tips here.

29 January 2020

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