Whangarei's water supply is moving towards being virtually drought-proof after the district survived this summer's big dry with no significant issues on water supplies across the region.
A drought was declared in Northland in February, with the region having its driest summer for almost 60 years.
But Whangarei District Councillors
heard this week that the district's water supplies came through the big dry "very well", but acknowledged that further work was needed to add resilience to the supply network.
This summer's drought followed one in the summer of 2010/11 that led to water restrictions being imposed in Whangarei. Since then the council had constructed a pipeline from Hatea River to the Whau Valley Dam to transfer water from the river if needed. As well, the Wilsons Dam at Ruakaka is fully operational.
The council's group manager infrastructure and services Simon Weston told Wednesday's infrastructure and services committee meeting that the local authority's long-term water supply policy was paying dividends.
