Water restrictions now in place

Water restrictions are now in force for users on the Lake Hayes Scheme, and roadside signs have been installed to inform residents. The restrictions apply to residents of Lake Hayes Estate, Ladies Mile, the Arrowtown-Lake Hayes Rd and Speargrass Flat Rd.

Last week the Queenstown Lakes District Council launched a campaign to educate people about the cost of water and how to save money by using less.

The restrictions at Lake Hayes include using timers to water for half an hour between midnight and 6am, hand-held hoses from 6am to noon and no irrigation from noon to midnight. Council infrastructure general manager Erik Barnes said the restriction was being monitored for use throughout the district.

Mr Barnes said the council was reluctant to enforce an entire ban for Lake Hayes and last year this was not necessary because of the conservation efforts of the community.

''That's the way we want to keep it but at the end of the day the council has no choice but to ensure that appropriate amounts of water are available for firefighting purposes.

''If we get below that point we will need to impose a ban.''

Council chief executive Adam Feeley said water in the Queenstown Lakes District was an issue of capacity as the pipes were small relative to the number of people using them at peak capacity.

Speaking at the general council meeting yesterday, Mr Feeley said the ''communications exercise'' and water campaign had the potential to change people's behaviour but, if not, other avenues such as metering would have to be investigated. In coming months the council expected to have ''some indication'' of whether people's habits were changing.