NEW WATER SUPPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 22, 26 January 1935, Page 11

NEW WATER SUPPLY.

TATTMARTJNUI BOROUGH. (From Our Own Correspondent.) TAUMARUNUI, Thursday. Construction of new water supply works which the Taumarunui Borough Council is undertaking is progressing satisfactorily, and the citizens of this thriving town can soon look tor an assured" supply of pure, clean water from the Wanganui River at Piriaka. The contractors, Messrs. Stevenson and Sons of Auckland, have completed the pumping station, and are now concentrating on the erection of the 42a,000orallon reservoir designed by the consulting engineer, Mr. R. Worley, on similar lines to the Hamilton reservoir. The contractors supplying and erecting the pumping plant are also well advanced with their work, and in a fortnight or so the change-over from the present supply will be made. The present source of supply, which lies in the hills at Tunanui, some 10 miles from the town, is a small stream. It is rapidly becoming polluted by the settlement of the surrounding lauds and deforestation of the catchment area. The water flows by gravitation some three miles' to the niters, and it is near this point that the new scheme starts. Ihe borough hvdro-electric scheme is also at this point, and the water power driving the electric generators is being used to° drive a turbine, which will develop the power necessary to drive the pumps, which will deliver tin? waters of the Upper Wanganui to the town mains. \nv surplus water will flow into the reservoir being built at Ilangaroa, immediately above the town, thus providing u reserve supplv to cope with heavy demands ami stabilise the pressure, so that the low pressures which, on occasions, cause inconvenience on the higher portion of the town, will be eliminated. At the present there is no storage in town, and the supply, depends on the amount of water the Oin main can deliver. '