Water situation in Napier improves with restrictions eased

December 5, 2017

Water restrictions are in place in the Hawke's Bay city today.

Water restrictions in Napier have been eased today after fears the Hawke's Bay town could run out of water yesterday.

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Today Napier City Council has eased the water alert level from level four to level two.

Residents have been banned from washing cars and watering gardens, and there are reports of people abusing council water workers.

"This means residents should take care with sprinklers and hoses, using them between 6am and 8am, and 7pm and 9pm only, as follows: even numbered houses on even days of the month, and odd numbered houses on odd days of the month," the council says in a statement.

The council is blaming overuse of garden sprinklers for a water crisis which sparked black water coming out of the taps and urgent calls for reduced water consumption.

Yesterday, the council flagged the area's water could run out overnight but the situation had improved by this morning.

"We're doing a (cautious) happy dance this morning! Thanks to the water-saving efforts of Napier people, we have seen a considerable improvement in our reservoir levels overnight," the council said in a statement. 

But it would take a few more days of careful water usage to fully recover to normal levels, the council said.

"We are pretty stoked with how the community has listened, rallied, and banded together to conserve water. Thank you all.”

"What happens is the reservoir recharges overnight, but on Sunday night, it didn't recharge as people didn't turn their sprinklers off overnight," Napier Mayor Bill Dalton told the AM Show.

"Quite frankly, the water usage was excessive."

However, things should be back to normal in the next day or two, he said.

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