With Napier and Hastings Councils imposing water bans, you might be interested to know just how much water is allocated to HB’s two largest municipal water systems.
Napier City Councils is consented by the HB Regional Council to take no more than 387,744 cubic meters of water over any 7-day period from the Heretaunga aquifer, or about 20.2 million cubes per year.
That would translate into 55.5 million litres per day or about 821 litres/day per resident.
Of course, Napier residents aren’t that waterlogged, as obviously businesses and the city government itself use water. Still NCC reported an estimated 500-570 litre daily usage per consumer (with a peak of 637 in November), putting Napier residents well above the national average (227), and above its 400 litre per person per day usage at this time last year.
The Hastings District Council is consented by the HB Regional Council to take no more than 16.9 million cubes of water annually from the wells servicing core Hastings and Havelock North (the so-called urban supply). That allocation translates into about 324,846 cubes over any 7-day period
However, note – this allocation excludes residents in places like Clive, Whakatu, Waimarama, Haumoana, Omahu and Whirinaki/Esk. That makes it impossible to compare the allocation/resident with Napier.
From its urban supply, HDC reports an average 634 litres per person per day usage over 2023/24. This spiked to 905 L/p/d in the week prior to announcing restrictions.
Just how serious is a Napier or Hastings ‘water ban’? Not exactly draconian.
Ominous ‘Level 3 water use restrictions’ in Hastings means that only hand-held lawn/garden watering is allowed, and only between 6-8am and 7-9pm on alternate days … no sprinklers or other automated systems.
Moreover, facilities that have their own bores are able to continue using water, include Splash Planet (for irrigation), some Hastings schools, the racecourse and Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park. And the children’s water play installations at Flaxmere, Kirkpatrick, Cornwall Park, and Havelock Village Green will continue to operate as they turn off automatically when not in use and are considered a better way of cooling off hot kids than everyone running hoses in their backyard.
Napier’s Level 3 restrictions follow the same hand-held, limited hours scheme. But true-to-form for Napier’s antiquated water infrastructure, the problem was initially exacerbated by a faulty water pump on one of its bores needing new parts and repair.
Also to be noted, in both systems heavier water use also generates more leaks! As we reported last May in Hawke’s Bay, a leaking bucket, HDC states that on a good day it aims “for no more than 20 per cent leakage’’ from its network.
Here’s how average New Zealanders use their 227 daily litres of water:
- Toilet = 86 litres per day
- Bathing and hygiene = 68 litres per day
- Laundry = 36 litres per day
- Kitchen = 32 litres per day
- Housekeeping = 5 litres per day
When will we get serious about water conservation? Not until we have total water metering across Hawke’s Bay. We wrote about that here as well.
If there is a water ban on sprinklers, how come NCC can water the grass at the Sound Shell and surrounding gardens by sprinkler and the concrete water feature spews water onto concrete which then evaporates. Surely my food producing garden is more important.
No, the NCC has an allowance for sprinkling the Sound Shell garden. You don’t have that extra allowance for your precious produce gardens. Just get real, use water from your kitchen twice and feed that to your garden . It will survive.
Are we still giving our water to overseas countries? Are we still giving out consents? We need to take care of us first Thank you very much.
Are we still giving our water to overseas countries? Are we still giving out consents? We need to take care of us first Thank you very much.
According to a senior insider at NCC, it’s not a lack of water that 8s the problem but rather a lack of pumping capacity. Napier has a number of pumps not in operation because it’s not a priority for council to make them operational.
This is so true, there is plenty of water in the aquifer, it’s just a matter of pumping and storage capacity.
No, the NCC has an allowance for sprinkling the Sound Shell garden. You don’t have that extra allowance for your precious produce gardens. Just get real, use water from your kitchen twice and feed that to your garden . It will survive.
Hi SM,
You are absolutely right. There is plenty of water in the aquifer, it is indeed the lack of pumping capacity that is the problem. That is not a council priority because it wants to make the consumers responsible for any of its shortcomings.
As a society we think that water is an endless commodity, it isn’t. We waste more water than we need to. How many people recycle their grey water from laundry and showers? We all like to have green grass and lush gardens. It is not hard to do and the benefits are more than worth the effort.
Why aren’t new house builds required to put in rain water storage of some sort. This would take a lot of pressure off.
The council regulations would not allow that because you could be collecting contaminated (e.g. coliform bacteria) water endangering your health. This is bullocks. We drink water collecting from our roof which is of course contaminated by rotting leaves with coliform bacteria. We have done this for the last 35 years and never been ill because of that.
That won’t work David. That’s stirring a hornets nest. Rain water storage contains coliform bacteria and that’s a “danger” to public health, they will tell you. We, in the country, live off rain water from our roof. Of course it is contaminated because of rotting leaves and bird poo that will grow coliform bacteria, but we have never been sick in 35 years. No problem.
Well why dont they cap the amount of people allowed to live in hawkes bay since we don’t have the capacity or funds to get our pumps operational. Even though every rate payer pays towards the city every year ? And somehow our water supply isn’t an urgent matter and just selling it is a good idea and then oh blame it on people trying to live their life with food,hygiene,hydration etc ……. right….
Sorry, but that’s nonsense Amanda. Getting more people to live in HB adds to more revenue to pay for the pumps that are needed. There is plenty of water in the aquifer for everybody , even for selling our water to overseas buyers. No problem. Isn’t being careful with water use something we should do regardless what council policies are.? Let’s not blame others, there are plenty of ways residents can save water without any stress or extra effort.
I am struggling how this is being shown as the people of HB are using too much water? Surely the problem is council has failed to do its job to deliver the water it charges for. I mean if you go buy a pie and inside its empty, then it’s not what you paid for or what they charged for! And surely if councils water infrastructure is inadequate to meet demands, then can you tell me how council can still be giving out consents to more new builds of whom will be placing further pressure on the already failing water system. It’s like selling and taking the payments for just one car to 10 people and only knowing very well there is only one car to deliver. I’m business this would be known as fraud and would possibly be locked up when you keep on doing it knowing very well you cannot deliver!
This is so true, there is plenty of water in the aquifer, it’s just a matter of pumping and storage capacity.
Hi Ian,
Don’t blame new builds, they will pay for water infrastructure just as much as you do, if not more. The people of Hawke’s Bay could, without any stress or much effort, do their bit to limit water usage. In the country we know how to do that, using precious rain water more than once, e.g. by collecting kitchen water when rinsing vegetables, washing hand, etc. and feeding that to struggling shrubs or vegie garden. It’s not hard at all.
Amanda you are on to it 100%
We live in the country and our main water source is rain water from our roof. We also have a bore for garden watering and for the cattle troughs. Despite that we have plenty of water in our tanks we are very careful water users, because we know how precious and limited the supply is particularly during the current dry period.
we often use water twice. We capture any water we use in the kitchen for rinsing vegies, hand washing, any grey wastewater in a big tub in the kitchen sink, which holds about 8 litres, which we empty onto the suffering garden shrubs, just to keep them alive. Of course we do not water the lawns, that’s pure waste. We are not subject to any water restrictions but we limit our water use by nature. When you live in the country, depending on rain water, you simply know how to save water, rather than opening the tap and expecting water to run limitless.
No further comment, enough said above.