Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says that the $224 million investment in water supply infrastructure the council is making this year will be vital in heading off the imposition of severe water restrictions after two years of unprecedented drought.

He made the comments at the opening of a new 50 million litre reservoir in Pukekohe this afternoon.

“This reservoir, costing $35 million in addition to the $224 million being invested in water infrastructure this year, enables us to deliver the full 25 million litres a day from the Waikato River allocated to us by the Hamilton City Council.

“I want to acknowledge the Hamilton City Council for providing this water to us, following my discussions with them earlier this year,” Mayor Goff said.

“Over the next six months, we will complete extensions to our water treatment plant in Tuakau which will allow us to draw a further 50 MLD from the Waikato River. After discussions with Waikato-Tainui and the Waikato River Authority, we have gained consent from the Waikato Regional Council to take this further allocation.

“Despite two years of unprecedented drought in Auckland, this should enable us to escape having to put severe water restrictions in place this summer.

“However, we are not out of the woods yet. The first two months of this spring are again the driest on record for 35 years. Last night’s rain helped lift the storage levels to 68 per cent, but this compares with average storage at this time of year of 91 per cent,” he said.

“We are doing everything we can to increase water supply and together with the huge effort by Aucklanders to save water, we can avoid a water shortage crisis caused by lack of rain.

“However, we need to continue the effort to conserve water while a new water treatment plant on Hays Creek Dam is finished next month and the Tuakau water treatment extension is completed by next May.

“The 50 million litres storage in the new reservoir we are opening today seems like a huge amount of water, but to put it in perspective, Aucklanders have used an average of 402 million litres a day over the past week,” Mayor Goff said.

Councillor Linda Cooper said, “In September and October, we received almost 60 per cent less rainfall than normal, so Auckland’s dam storage level has been hovering around two-thirds full for some time.

“Thankfully, Aucklanders have continued to make outstanding water savings – we’ve saved more than 6 billion litres since restrictions were introduced in May.

“This summer, with new water sources and treatment plant upgrades we have accelerated as part of our drought response, Auckland has an additional 40 MLD more than last summer.

“However, continued dry weather still poses a risk, so Aucklanders should continue their efforts to save water.”

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