Auckland council uses emergency powers to draw extra 15 million litres from Waikato River

Auckland's storage dams are at alarmingly low levels. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Hamilton City Council is in negotiations with Auckland City Council and Watercare over allowing Auckland to take water from the Waikato River to help battle the city's ongoing water crisis.

The dams feeding New Zealand's biggest city are only at 44.1 per cent full, compared with an average of almost 78 per cent for this time of year.

Watercare invoked emergency powers on Tuesday night under section 330 of the Resource Management Act to allow it to take the extra 15 million litres a day.

Watercare chief executive Raveen Jaduram said they would only use the emergency powers on a temporary basis.

"We are negotiating positively with Hamilton City Council to use 25 million litres a day of the council's water allocation on a temporary basis," he said.

"This allocation is consented but not required by the council at this time.

"We are pleased with the discussions at this stage in the process but are continuing to look at all possible options."

The shortage of water in Auckland's dams is due to a significant lack of rain, receiving less than half of its normal rainfall since November 2019.

The use of emergency powers under the RMA highlighted the urgency of the situation, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said in a statement this afternoon.

"This will increase immediate total production from the river to 165 million litres a day and reduce demand on the region's drought-hit dams," he said.

"If we do not get enough rain in winter and spring, Auckland will face a crisis in water supply this summer, with a drastic impact on households and industry."

Waikato City Council chairman Russ Rimmington told Radio New Zealand earlier in the week that Auckland has been warned it cannot rely on the Waikato River alone to get it out of a drought-induced water supply crisis.

He said although the Waikato could help the country's largest city with its water woes to some extent, it was important for other options - such as harvesting rainwater from roofs and enlarging dams - to be considered.

"To actually run the water supply today just on the weather gods is probably foolhardy, that's the nicest way to put it," Rimmington said.

"They've got to look at longer, more sustainable ways of water harvesting and collection and retention in the dams."

He said Watercare had "dropped the ball" with its strategic planning.

"We are water-conservation conscious, the city of Hamilton put on water restrictions as early as October but in Auckland it was more like [May], then it was like 'oh there's no water'."