Water main fixed but supply tight

A leak in one of Dunedin's main water supply pipelines has been repaired and the pipeline recommissioned, but the city's residents are still being urged to restrict water use because there is not much to spare.

A crack in the Deep Stream pipeline near Mt Gowrie, where the steel pipe meets the concrete pipe, was repaired on Tuesday and the line recommissioned on Tuesday night, Dunedin City Council water production manager Gerard McCombie said.

The city's other main supply line, the Deep Creek pipeline was still shut while an intake was upgraded, but was expected to be operational again tomorrow, although it was to be closed again next Tuesday for a further three days for more maintenance.

That, plus other pressures on the supply, including low river flows from some rivers, meant the council was asking residents to voluntarily cut use, Mr McCombie said yesterday.

A call earlier this week for people to put off watering their gardens for a few days got a good response, with a 11% reduction in demand.

The daily demand yesterday was 46,000cu m, compared with a 57,000cu m supply capacity.

The Mt Grand reservoir, which can hold 10 days' supply for the city, was at 90% capacity yesterday.

While there were no serious concerns about supply yet, the pipe issues and some of the supplying rivers being quite low at the moment meant he still had a word of caution and a request for people to limit non-essential water use in the meantime.

''What people have to realise is Dunedin works off a run-of-river supply so does not have a lot of storage, like Sydney, which has several years' storage, or Auckland which has a year's storage or something - so managing demand is key.''

- debbie.porteous@odt.co.nz [2]