The Invercargill City Council is lifting water restrictions – effective immediately, Water
Manager Alister Murray confirmed today.
The Invercargill City Council earlier this week banned domestic outside water use
because of extreme low flows in the Oreti River, and a drought was declared by MPI
on Tuesday. However, steady rainfall over the last two days has caused river flows
to rise to a level where the restrictions can be removed.
Mr Murray said that the lifting of water restrictions meant that residential households
could return to normal water use.
“Restrictions may be reimposed in future, if river flows drop to low levels again.
However, the imposition of restrictions, if required, is not expected for another 10
days or so. ICC will continue to monitor the situation and will reintroduce restrictions,
if required.”
Mr Murray thanked those people who had taken the restrictions seriously and
modified their consumption to conserve water.
“It made a difference initially, but we noticed that in the following days the reduction
in demand was not as much as we expected – especially over Tuesday and
Wednesday.
“Should restrictions be reimposed, we hope to encourage people to make a more
sustained effort to conserve water. It is a precious and essential resource and we
need everyone to think about doing their bit to help the wider community,” Mr Murray
said.