Water Restrictions - Level by LevelNgā rāhuitanga wai - ngā taumata

Please conserve water

Managing your water means keeping an eye on how much you take but also what you put into the pipes.

You can help conserve water by keeping showers short and running the dishwasher and washing machine in the early morning or at night.

Keeping your water use down not only helps conserve water it also keeps the pressure off our wastewater infrastructure. This is struggling due to a breakdown at the wastewater treatment plant. 

Water conservation is critical as some of our wastewater network is still running on generators, some pump stations are not yet fully back to normal operation and our wastewater treatment plant is currently out of action. Be careful what you put into the drain or down the loo.
In the loo it’s only paper, pee and poo. No sanitary products or nappies and no ‘flushable’ wipes. They clog the pipes and turn into ‘rag monsters’ that cause havoc down below. In the drain, it’s just rain, no fat or grease, no chemicals, no rubbish, no silt. 

Our city’s drinking water is safe to drink but there is a ‘boil water’ notice in place for all residents with a private water supply like a bore. This is because of potential contamination of ground water from flooding.

Please treat all water in streams, the sea, lakes and rivers as contaminated. This includes silt and mud. This is because untreated wastewater continues to be discharged to the sea as we work to restore our waste water treatment plant, which was flooded in the storm. Don't eat kaimoana from our sea or waterways at this time.

Things to remember

• Restrictions normally only apply to residential users - refer to this page for any restrictions that may apply to non-residential users
• Sprinkler means any kind of mobile or fixed sprinkler system used for irrigation
• Garden watering includes all outdoor gardens and lawns
• Watering gardens during the heat of the day wastes water because so much of the water just evaporates
• Normally, you may use your hose for purposes other than garden watering (such as washing a car) unless there is a total watering ban and such use has been prohibited
• Please, always use water wisely, whatever you are using it for.
  
  

Napier City Council Parks and Reserves - Watering

Council needs to maintain grounds that are soft enough to host sports matches (for instance, at Park Island and McLean Park) and keep the lawns and plants in our Council gardens hydrated enough to survive the conditions. But we operate a heavily restricted schedule, just as we are asking our community to do. Most of our grounds receive about a half to a third of the water they usually would, and we try and get the water down during cool periods – mornings, evenings, and overnight.

Sometimes, though, that’s not enough. Below you will find a list of our parks and reserves that still need to receive some (but heavily reduced) daytime watering to ensure they're operational:

• McLean Park – watering when ground temperature reaches 25 degrees or over. Auto irrigation overnight.
• Embankment at McLean Park – no watering
• Park Island – reduced from intensive daily watering to 2-3 days per week
• Marewa – reduced from daily watering to one morning per week
• Taradale Park – reduced from daily watering to 4 days per week
• Petane – reduced from daily watering to 4 days a week, 6am-2pm
• Tareha Reserve – reduced watering in preparation for booked games
• Nelson Park – reduced from all-day watering to mornings only. Please note this schedule may change to prepare upcoming events.
• Amenity Gardens – reduced from intensive daily watering to mornings only.

Fountains and water features are mostly on recirculated water supply systems, and are topped up as required. They run on reduced hours from 10am to 10pm or are switched off completely when the city is on water restrictions.

Council is in the process of installing water meters at our sports fields so we can gain some improved insight into what we use each day.