With no prospects of significant rain on the horizon, local authorities are keeping a wary eye on an increasingly parched Northland, parts of which experienced some of the driest conditions in decades last year.
Colin Dall, the Northland Regional Council's group manager regulatory services, said a number of rivers in the region had fallen below designated 'minimum flow' levels designed to restrict the amount of water that could be taken to protect their ecology.
"Things are changing as staff carry out manual gauging to confirm low flows in different catchments, but at this point we've got about half a dozen consent holders who have ceased their takes in accordance with their resource consent conditions (mainly in the Mid and Far North), and the council has also had to impose restrictions on some other users," he said.
District councils taking water for public supply and farmers irrigating pasture were among the biggest users among the several hundred people or organisations with consents to take water, including some major users who were permitted to take hundreds of thousands of litres daily, but hundreds of others were taking relatively small amounts without the need for a consent.
Mr Dall said the council had been advising people for some time not to waste water and to make sure they had taken sensible precautions for dry conditions, especially those relying on their own supply via tanks. It had also contacted some of its more vulnerable water take consent holders/water users, urging them to conserve water where possible.