Water availability likely to be at crisis point in 30 years, as NZ's regions battle drought

Rain will be needed for an extended period to turn around the droughts ripping across the regions, NIWA says. 

A conservative scenario put forward by climate change scientists is that by the middle of this century, most parts of New Zealand would spend 35 more days on average a year in drought. 

Environmental scientist Anthony Fowler called the situation a crisis. 

On top of that, demand for water is increasing. 

Climate scientist James Renwick told TVNZ1's Q+A that New Zealand "better be working" on the issue if it wanted to be in a good position in 30 years. 

Dr Fowler said it was important for water to be used sparingly. 

"One way for doing that is the fact that we pay for it. Aucklanders actually use a lot less water than most places in New Zealand because we pay for our water.

"There's been arguments that maybe we should have differential pricing so that when we have a drought maybe we should start paying more to put in a signal to uses to start cutting back."

He said if the issue of water is left "too much longer, we are going to be in serious trouble". 

Watch the video above for the full story.