Environment
The Water Shortage Direction put in place two weeks ago to halt irrigation in the region will expire tonight. Following a review today, Environment Southland will not extend this.
The Direction was issued on 31 March. It was aimed at protecting the extremely low river and aquifer levels in Southland and maintaining essential human and stock water drinking supplies.
Since the Direction was put in place rain has fallen across the region, easing the pressure on rivers and aquifers.
Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips said it was important to take a precautionary approach with this Direction, something the council had never put in place before.
“2022 was the driest year on record and March had the been the driest March we’ve ever had,” Mr Phillips said. “Many in our community had been struggling with water for stock and we had concerns about the health of our waterways as well as community drinking water suplies and key industries.”
This week Environment Southland has been able to assess the impact of the forecast weather systems, which have had positive impacts on river, aquifer and soil moisture levels.
The Southland region had 13 to 40mm of rain overnight on Monday. Rivers are currently responding well, mainly due to increased soil moisture throughout the region following the rain on 5-6 April.
The resulting peaks in the rivers from the overnight rainfall on Monday will continue to travel down the catchment over the next couple of days and should remain at healthy levels for a few weeks.
While the rain has alleviated the immediate concerns, the drought would have an impact for many months.
Many farmers have been impacted from both the drought and Covid-19 and as a result were carrying extra stock due to the lack of availability at the meat processing plants.
“The lack of rain means winter crops also haven’t grown to the level most would have wanted by this stage, and minimal grass growth has also meant many farmers have already dipped into their winter feed supplies.”
“We understand this may continue to be a difficult year and encourage farmers to reach out to your catchment group networks, industry representatives and the Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.