Water Conservation in the Waimakariri District

Did you know?

Waimakariri District Council operates 17 water supply schemes supplying water to over 15,000 properties.  Whilst the Waimakariri District is fortunate in having sufficient quantities of high quality water available for the community drinking water supplies, it is not an unlimited resource. 

At present Council spends approximately $4 million a year operating the 17 water supply schemes to provide water to its communities.  This amount is expected to increase over the next few years, so saving water becomes more important, as it will directly impact on the cost of supplying water, and therefore your water rates.

Waimakariri Water Use

The Council is committed to using water efficiently on all its water supply schemes, and in July 2010 adopted a Water Conservation Strategy for the District. This included:

• Active leak detection. This work includes finding and fixing leaks on Council-owned pipes and measuring leakage levels for each scheme.
• Community Education. Advertisement and school education programme on water conservation.

This strategy has set targets to achieve water savings throughout the District and reduce leakage levels on all water supply schemes.

Daily Water Use

The average household in Waimakariri District used about 1,600 litres per day in 2009. That’s about the equivalent of three full bath tubs.

Each summer we use up to four times as much water a day as a typical winter’s day.  Much of this goes on our lawns and gardens.

The daily water use graph (see Associated Documents)shows the difference between water use for the different water supply schemes on an average day and the day with the highest water use throughout the year. The large difference in some schemes shows the high amounts used during summer.

Schemes such as Garrymere and Ohoka have many sections with large gardens that require much more watering in summer than a standard town garden.

Why Save Water?

Of all the water in the world, only 3% is fresh. Less than one-third of 1% of this fresh water is available for human use. The rest is frozen in glaciers or polar ice caps, or is deep within the earth, beyond our reach.

To put it another way, if 100 litres represents the world's water, about half a tablespoon of it is fresh water available for our use

The costs involved with providing and taking away water to households includes pumps, treatment, pipes and reservoirs.  Using water sparingly will reduce the amount of water we need to take from our rivers and aquifers, it will save energy and treatment costs in providing households with water.  Individual households can save money with lower water heating bills.

The summer household use chart (see Associated Documents) shows how much water is used in an average home during the summer months by your different appliances.

Tips on how you can save water at home.

Further Information

• A leaflet containing further advice and water saving ideas can be picked up at any of the three service centres at Rangiora, Kaiapoi or Oxford.
• Call the Council on (03) 311 8900 and ask for the Utilities Planning Engineer.