AUCKLAND WATER SUPPLY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1335, 12 January 1912, Page 4

AUCKLAND WATER SUPPLY.

(By TeleeraDh.—Snocial OorresnonilonU Auckland, January 11, Eighty thousand people aw supplied with water lor all purposes in the area covered by tho AucMind City Council's reticulation system. The summer consumption has attained an average of approximately 5,M0,000 gallons a day, and ' w.hilo tho existing conservation schema is ample for tho 'requirements of tho city, provision is being made for the needs of the future by a vast extension. Authorityhas been given for an expenditure that will enable the City Council to complete a storage system with a capacity sufficient to meet double the' present daily consumption for ninety days. Tho main source of supply is tho Waitakerei system, of which the essential feature is a conservation dam with .a capacity of 200,000,000 gallons; in addition, there is an available supply of about a million gallons daily from running water at Kihotapu, whore the City Council has an extensive water reservation, and the pump-ing-station at Western Springs can deliver a further supply of from 1,500,000 - gallons per day, in dry weather, to 0,000,000 gallons in wet weather. Tho water is distributed to the city from a number of servico reservoirs within tho area supplied; there are five of these intermediary water stores; those in Ponsonbv and in Arch Hill contain a tolal of G. 000,000 gallons, and the two at Khyber Pass have a capacity of 5,500,000 gallons; tli? existing reservoir on Mount Eden holds 500,000 gallons, and the second, which is now being built, will store 1,500,000 gallons. The plan adopted for (lis oxtension of the system comprises tho construction of a conservation dam with a capacity of 700,000,000 gallons, and Ilia delivery of this supply to the city. When it has been completed, the failure of (ha supply in a drought will be virtually impossiGle. There will bo a total storage of 900,000,000 gallons, sufficient for the needs of a' city consuming double tho present quantity for ninety days, even in the driest season; an additional 3,000,000 . gallons will bo available from running wnler. sn that the city could use water lavishly throughout: a drought lasting 128 . days.