Rain washes away water restrictions

Water restrictions have been lifted in South Hokianga due to rainfall.

Water restrictions have finally been lifted in South Hokianga thanks to last week's heavy rain.

The restrictions were imposed by the Far North District Council in January and applied to all businesses and households connected to the Opononi/Omapere and Rawene water-supply schemes. They banned non-handheld hosepipe use, filling or topping up pools, irrigation and sprinkler use.

Council infrastructure manager Jacqui Robson said the streams supplying the two schemes had remained low until last week's rain.

"We've had to keep the restrictions going in order to ensure stream levels are kept above the low-flow limits required by Northland Regional Council resource consents. But last week's rain has finally given us the extra flows we need."

Ms Robson said the council was grateful for the support of South Hokianga people and their efforts to save water.

The council had applied for Ministry of Health subsidies to help pay for improvements to South Hokianga water schemes, which lacked drought resilience.

The decision about the type of improvements to undertake would depend on whether the subsidies were granted and public feedback on the options included in the council's Long Term Plan consultation document.

Ms Robson said households and businesses should still use water wisely. It would be several years before any new water sources kicked in, so future restrictions in summer and autumn water were expected and people should consider changes they could make now to reduce consumption in those periods.