It seemed strange. A few days ago the Waikato District Council declared a water alert for Raglan. Yet when the Riki Springs, Raglan’s water source, was checked, there was plenty of water.
So I asked WDC about the water usage. A spokesperson said, “With the introduction of water restrictions on 1 December, we then saw 10,570 cubic metres of water being used in the first week, a minimal increase compared to the 11,262 cubic metres of water used in the first week of December 2014.”
Although the Council said there had been a minimal increase in actual fact, 11,262 last year and 10,570 this year is a reduction not an increase. So Raglan used 692 cubic metres less than last year. So perhaps the water alert was working.
The next step was to ask the WDC what had happened to the 692 cubic metres that Raglanders had saved? After all that’s a lot of water- 692,000 litres in a measure people are more familiar with. Some councils conserve water and store it in reservoirs where it can be used in the middle of a dry summer.
A council spokesperson said, “By the Raglan community using 692m3 less water this year compared to the first week in December 2014, it means the Council did not collect that extra 692m3 from the Omahina spring. This means that there is more water available for the many natural eco-systems that rely on this water to be sustainable.”
So the water saved by Raglanders is not being consevred for later use by WDC, instead it is being flushed down the Omahina Creek on a daily basis by the Council.
The questions I asked the WDC were:
Would you please provide data for the weekly water usage for Raglan for the last 10 weeks.
And also the maximum daily throughput possible for the Raglan water treatment plant.
The Council has not provided this information. In past years they made it available on their website so all could see it. Now they appear to be very secretive with the data. In the past they have confirmed that Raglan’s daily water usage is well under the resource consent level and well under the capacity of the water network to deliver.
The Council continues to fail to understand that Raglan is a tourist town. Water consumption goes up in summer when more visitors arrive and it goes up even more on sunny days when more visitors come to the town.
I look forward to a media release on the “many natural eco-systems”. Council has clearly done a study, presumably as part of its resource consent application, but I can’t find it on the internet. All I found was a 1938 DSIR report saying the spring produces about 900,000 gallons per day – about 4,000 cubic metres, so 11,000 a week should leave plenty for the many eco-systems.
Spin doctors at it yet again, WDC trying to defend the indefensible… They obviously need to bury the data so they can start charging more and more for water … It will be interesting hearing their justifying restrictions and water meters when we all know The spring will never run dry and nor will demand exceed the infrastructure’s capacity.
Council will never see Raglan as an exception to it’s district wide township rules. Good luck Rodger
Perhaps the border of Otorohanga DC could be moved north from Aotea Harbour to include Raglan and Harbour. ODC does a better job of maintaining the West Coast roads than WDC and they seem to understand their coastal town of Kawhia well.
There is a process that residents can apply to change their council … I know john was working on it some years ago …. cant recall the issue that was fireing them up at the time. I did think it had merit though
The process for getting changes in councils or their boundaries is at http://www.lgc.govt.nz/the-reorganisation-process/. Maybe the first thing is to find out how many people might be interested by holding a public meeting, or raising the question at the Community Board?