General water use down but peak demand remains

Water use in the Queenstown Lakes district has decreased, thanks mainly to the council's ongoing public awareness campaign, but the challenge to cut peak demand remains and no change in peak use has been reported.

Councillors were recently updated on the water demand management plan.

Cr Trevor Tattersfield asked infrastructure general manager Erik Barnes to include how much had been spent on leak detection and how much water had been saved in the next progress report.

Mayor Vanessa van Uden backed the suggestion.

''We've talked about leak detection for a long time ... and I want to start seeing some water consumption reduced,'' she said.

Chief executive Adam Feeley said a reduction in water demand would postpone the need for more infrastructure and that was the real cost, although the figures were not available yet.

Cr Tattersfield questioned how it was possible to measure the demands of the summer influx of visitors.

The report said the campaign and fine weather increased the number of leaks reported to the council by 30%. There were 124 reported in January, up from 96 in December.

The report will also assess the effectiveness of the public education campaign and report the latest results of leak detection, confirm a study of leak repair options versus the cost of new pipes and details on options for charging for water use.