Efficient use of water: Irrigation Services installers Ian Stuart (left) and Samuel Wanderer, both of Cromwell, work on one of four automated sprinkler lines being put in at Pioneer Park in Alexandra.
Wherever possible, the use of highcost, treated town water will be replaced by lower-cost, bore water for public open-space amenity areas in order to help achieve key components of the council's long-term water strategy.
‘‘We live in the driest part of New Zealand, so we have to be smart about how we use our water,'' Mr Smail said.
‘‘We're trying to drive down our use of water from a council perspective - lead by example.''
There are three key areas including Alexandra's Pioneer Park and Molyneux Park and the green ways in Cromwell near Anderson Park, Cromwell Swim Centre and those adjacent to Gair Avenue.
Work began this week at Pioneer Park for a new automatic irrigation system to replace the current manual bayonet and rain-gun systems.
Automatic pop-up sprinklers are being installed on irrigation lines every 19m in a grid pattern connecting to the Linger and Die bore, which previously supplied the rain-gun system only.
The initial cost of $20,000 includes four lines with automatic pop-up sprinklers being installed on the park in front of Central Stories' weather station.
The bayonet sprinklers in front of the building will also be replaced and connected to the automatic system. They had been connected to town supply and needed to be turned on and off manually.
As money becomes available the bayonet sprinklers operating on the outskirts of the park, which are connected to town supply, will also be automated to the bore and the final four irrigation lines across the park will be completed.
The automatic system would be more effective as it would be used at night, would cut back on maintenance time, use less water and would rectify problems of the rain gun damaging irises in the council gardens and hitting Central Stories' weather station, Mr Smail said.
‘‘Hopefully it will improve the turf, we won't have brown areas - we should have a more uniform look in terms of the appearance of the park.''
At Molyneux Park there was one bore servicing the irrigation and a second one to eliminate any use of town water supply was also in the pipeline.
‘‘If we get the money and we get all the approvals, in theory we should be able to get Molyneux Park on bore water by summer this year.
‘‘If we can do that with both Pioneer Park and Molyneux Park, we're cutting out a truck load of town supply.''
The Otago Regional Council has given permission for the Cromwell Community Board to drill an exploratory bore at a site in Cromwell with a view to watering some of the green ways.
