ONLY WAIST-DEEP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 72, 26 March 1932, Page 7

ONLY WAIST-DEEP.

PARTS or WAIKATO RIVER. HAMILTON WATER SHORTAGE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. The level of the Waikato River has fallen sft below normal level, and, as a result, the Hamilton water supply has been seriously affected. The intakes at the pumping station are now above water, and the borough is relying solely 011 the reservoir accommodation for the borough supply. At the request of the borough engineer, 1500 cusecs of water were released at Arapuni this morning to relieve the situation. With the level of the river thus raised, no further anxiety in this connection need be felt here. Since the appreciable drop in the level of the Waikato River at Hamilton, shoals and snags have appeared, rendering bathing on any stretch of the river dangerous.

Both wharves of the Roose Shipping Company at Hamilton are high and dry, and all river transport here has been suspended. The extent to which the water level has dropped can be. gauged from the fact that it is possible at various points of the river at present to walk practically waist high from bank to bank.

The public is, in the meantime, requested to exercise rigid economy in the use of water.