A continued period of sunny weather and low rainfall has kept water shortage directions in place for consent holders in the Moutere Deep Groundwater and Motupiko water management zones.

Tasman’s Dry Weather Task Force has decided that as water levels continue to drop, Moutere Eastern and Coastal Zone should remain in Stage 2 as of Monday 10 March 2025.

Meanwhile, the Motupiko water management zone will move to Stage 3 rationing (a 50 % cut on water use) with a cease take on the consent-driven Rainy management zone also taking effect.

It is important Consent holders are familiar with their Resource Consent conditions as some may be subject to higher restrictions thresholds.

These restrictions do not apply to Tasman urban water supplies or Council-managed reticulated water supplies beyond the conditions of consent.

The rainfall forecast earlier this week did not reach the expected levels across the region. Despite odd areas of localised heavy showers - notably 23.5mm recorded in Tasman village - in the 36 hours (to 6am Wednesday) rainfall amounts in all other areas were below 8mm.

All the major rivers and aquifers continue their slow decline, while overall soil moisture is also declining in Waimea and Tākaka.

The decision to move Motupiko into Stage 3 rationing is prompted by the current dry state of the river, with a flow of just 189 l/s recorded on Wednesday.

The Riuwaka River/ Little Sydney Stream/Brooklyn Stream/Moutere River/Powley Creek and Dovedale are still above restriction triggers, while the Motueka River at Woodstock is flowing at 8871 l/s, compared to 11,600 l/s last week.

Lower Wai-iti River flow is at 600 l/s, while the Wai-iti Dam is 68.3 % full.

Cobb Dam in Tākaka was 35 % full yesterday and there has been a fair bit of generation in the last few weeks – this has also helped the flow at Te Waikoropupū Springs and the Tākaka River.

Te Waikoropupū Springs flow is currently about 9,500 l/s, compared to 10,000 l/s recorded last week.

The Waimea Dam is full, with the flow below the dam being about 800 l/s. The unmodified flow at Wairoa at Irvines is about 3,660 l/s, which is still above the Stage 1 trigger for unaffiliated permits of 2,750 l/s.

Moutere Eastern Groundwater has dropped from about 33.42 m amsl last week after the rain to 33.1 m - Stage two trigger is 33 m – likely to be hit in the next 2 – 3 days. Moutere Coastal groundwater also continues to drop from 19.6 m to 19.5 m this week.

Moutere Western Zone is at 4.5 m – still above the rationing trigger of 0m amsl.

There is no useful rain predicted in the next week. However, the positive aspect of the present situation is that as crops get harvested, water demand will start to reduce.

Staff will continue to monitor river flows, groundwater and soil moisture levels in the coming days to ascertain the need for further measures.

Decisions will be reviewed at the next meeting of the Dry Weather Taskforce, provisionally scheduled for Tuesday 11 March 2025.

You can keep up to date with groundwater and river flow data by visiting our environmental data portal www.tasman.govt.nz/my-region/environment/environmental-data-portal.

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