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415 days ago

Excess water usage charges.

Gordon from Halswell

I had cause to contact the Council regarding excess water charges and whether the charge was still in force, as my meter has not been read since FEB 2023.
Plus, it was still in force to remind me of the justification behind it.

It turns out that it is still in place at 900ltrs per day and the reason given is:
"In two of the three previous summers, demand on our water supply network has been so high that it's been at risk of not being able to supply enough water to properties. If this happened, it could have serious impacts on public health, as well as public safety in the event of a significant fire.
Low water pressure in the pipes also causes other health and safety issues such as allowing groundwater to enter the network through breaks that would usually leak outwards under normal pressure. Groundwater can contain potentially harmful microbes that cause illness. Our Water Supply team then have to respond by increasing chlorination."
I pointed out that water saved in Halswell will not help the lack of water pressure in Fendalton or the hospital. In fact, ONLY the facilities in the areas with smaller piping and older systems, suffer from this problem. Charging the rest of the city to encourage them to reduce their usage does NOTHING to stop the drop in water pressure in other Zones.
With this system, we do not SAVE water, as water that is not used today, goes to the sea, there is no huge tank below the ground that today's water can be stored in, until tomorrow.
There is plenty of water or we would not be building new subdivisions.
A relatively small area of the city will suffer water pressure problems on hot summer days during peak demand times, even if the rest of the city turned their water OFF.
The Manager of the Water Division explained it to me.

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