The Gladstone Rd slip after the heavy rainfall last weekend.
The Gladstone Rd slip after the heavy rainfall last weekend.
There might have been some smelly people about and dirty dishes would have piled up in the sink.
But an impassioned plea for Horowhenua residents to ration water this week saw the total amount of water consumed across the Horowhenua district almost halve.
Horowhenua District Council issued public notices and a video of Mayor Bernie Wanden was circulated on social media, urging people to conserve water.
A video of Mayor of Horowhenua Bernie Wanden appealing for people to conserve water was circulated on social media.
After the phone alerts and messaging, daily consumption reduced significantly. Peak consumption in Levin dropped almost 50 per cent.
Water supply wasn't an issue. It was water quality. Heavy rainfall earlier in the week had seen water catchments in Levin, Shannon and Tokomaru struggle to treat the muddy river water to drinking-water standards.
Water tankers with drinking water were stationed at Shannon, and at the Levin Performing Arts Centre in Queen St East, and a carpark on the corner of Salisbury and Bath Sts in Levin.
By Wednesday morning reservoir levels had returned to levels deemed safe. But, as large -usage businesses were reconnecting, residents were asked to continue conserving water - where practical - for a further 24 hours.
The Ōhau River above the Levin Water Treatment plant when it was in flood this week. Photo / Benji Gaby
Mayor Wanden said the increased storage levels were directly attributed to the strong response from the community with their water conservation efforts, thanking the community for their response and thanks them for the patience.
"Everybody in the community should be very proud of their efforts. The sacrifices made ... contributed to the replenishing of our water storage levels," he had said.
"At times, we do take our water supply for granted and this incident has been a bit of reminder for us about what we can do to reduce the amount of water we use in our everyday lives."
In a 30-hour period to 3pm on Sunday, 340mm of rain fell on the Tararua Ranges, with significant rainfall since then. It left water treatment plants struggling to treat drinking water in the area.
The community conservation effort initially saw reservoirs refill above critical levels, but more savings through the week were required to return the water to safe levels.
Schools and educational institutions were able to operate with students and staff encouraged to keep water use to a minimum.
Small businesses were able to continue to operate with the exception of high-water-use functions. Carwashes and laundromats were encouraged to keep their water consumption as low as possible.
The heavy rain caused a slip on Gladstone Road. Photo: Benji Gaby.
HDC worked with large water-consuming businesses to supply water by tankers.
On average, Levin water users normally consumed 9 million litres every day at this time of the year. The capacity at the reservoir was 12.7 million litres.
The reduced consumption allowed the amount of water at the Gladstone Rd reservoir to increase at a faster rate, reducing the length of time that water had to be rationed.
The total capacity for the Levin reservoirs dropped to about half of normal capacity, which was just enough to meet the demand provided the community continued to conserve water usage.
This is less the "high-consumption users" who have been requested to use locally stored or tankered water until the quantity of water allows them to resume using mains water.
Shannon water use was about 60 per cent, which was sufficient to meet demand provided continued water conservation measures were obeyed.
Water tankers were used to prop up the supply in Tokomaru, as flooding had caused minor damage to the water intake and had affected water quality, although repairs had since remedied the issue.
Enough water was tanked to meet demand with Tokomaru's storage capacity, although it had fallen to about 60 per cent of normal capacity.
There were no water quality or quantity issues for the remaining Horowhenua settlements of Foxton, Foxton Beach, Waitarere Beach, Hokio Beach, Kuku, Manukau or Waikawa Beach.
Ways to conserve water: • If it's yellow, let it mellow • When you do your dishes, fill your sink once and avoid using the dishwasher • Don't use your washing machine • Take a shower rather than a bath and; • When you shower, take a bucket with you to fill your toilet up for flushing
