Council eyes irrigation in hot season

A SWDC report focuses on the "irrigation of Martinborough Square as well as other council-owned spaces in Greytown and Featherston during the summer water restriction period". FILE PHOTO

WITH THE approach of summer, the South Wairarapa District Council is considering irrigating its public parks during the hot season while water restrictions for the district are in place.

A report has been prepared by SWDC amenities manager Helen McNaught for the working party "to consider irrigation of Martinborough Square as well as other council-owned spaces in Greytown and Featherston during the summer water restriction period".

This comes after a meeting in March, where the question was raised as to "whether council should be irrigating parks when residents were unable to water their lawns.

"Should council be setting an example by not irrigating, or should we be attempting to maintain at least a few green spaces for the public?" Ms McNaught said in the report.

The SWDC Working Party has been asked to receive the report at a meeting, which will be held tomorrow morning.

"The question of whether or not to irrigate council parks and gardens during periods of water restrictions is more than a simple choice between promoting aesthetic/amenity value over being seen to promote water conservation.

"A larger consideration is that council may have a significant existing investment in some key trees, gardens and sportsfields, and that irrigation is potentially critical in maintaining the investment in those assets and avoiding additional costs in repairing or replacing them," Ms McNaught said.

It is proposed that an irrigation policy is developed under the council's water management strategy, along with investigations of alternative water supply sources, but it is recommended current irrigation arrangements be carried out over summer 2015/16.

The Martinborough Square has the only set of automatic irrigators owned by SWDC.

The system has four zones and, in spring, each zone operates for one hour, three days a week.

In summer, each zone runs for one hour every day.

Daily watering is continued into autumn until the grass is well re-established.

Watering is then reduced to every second day until winter, when the system is turned off.

An irrigation system in Greytown's Soldiers' Memorial Park is for the cricket wicket only and is managed by the Greytown Cricket Club.

"There is no irrigation on the park itself and this makes it difficult to re-establish good grass growth for the cricket outfield after the considerable damage to the turf caused by football over winter," Ms McNaught said.

City Care staff hand-water the annual gardens in Featherston, Martinborough and Greytown during summer and additional watering is done for some trees.

"Farley's oak in Greytown is hand-watered as part of the on-going programme of recovery for the tree."

Any trees planed in the last two winter seasons will also require watering during summer.

The report also includes alternative options of water supplies for irrigating the council's key assets.

A rain water harvesting system has been proposed for the roof of the proposed Waihinga Centre, where a solar pump would transfer the water to the Town Square irrigation system.

"Rainwater harvesting systems could potentially be developed for other council parks and gardens from adjacent buildings."

The report suggests bores could be used for irrigating larger areas.