Water Taken For Granted

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31088, 17 June 1966, Page 29 (Supplement)

Water Taken For Granted

A metropolitan amenity often taken for granted is a plentiful supply of highpressure water. In Christchurch city alone there is a complex control system for the more than 25 pumping stations which draw water from over 80 wells to meet a demand that can rise to more than 30 million gallons a day in the summer. But when the high pressure was first mooted for Christchurch in 1879 the citizens rejected it and polls taken even as late as 1902 and 1904 were against a water supply scheme. However, Sydenham borough, just before its amalgamation with the city in 1903, established its own high-pressure supply. The early settlers drew their water from the Avon and its branches and later from shallow surface wells. The discovery of the artesian water below the city is believed to have been made early in 1862 and the first artesian well was sunk in 1864. It was soon found that anyone could secure a more than ample supply by simply sinking an artesian bore on his own ground at very little cost. Then the height

to which the wells rose began to drop and rams were installed to such an extent that everyone became accustomed to the familiar thumping and only visitors were disturbed. The loan for the city proposals for a piped water supply, with a pumping station at the foot of Cashmere Hills and a reservoir on the hills was finally carried in June, 1907, and the water turned on for the first time on June 21, 1909. Further loans were carried at a poll in 1916. Gradually the high-pres- ; sure water supply system extended throughout the metropolitan area. For the future, with ageing , pipes in the old system the City Council has to face a programme of costly renewal; but all local bodies have another problem—keeping the water supply pure. The underground water is free from pathogenic organisms and needs no sterilisation; but because water is much easier to get than to dispose of, some industries were pumping their wastes back down wells into the ground. This a good solution to the problem so long as the water is pure. That is whqt the authorities have to ensure for the future.