SHORTAGE OF WATER

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 3

SHORTAGE OF WATER

Effects of Dry Spell Being , Felt CITY ENGINEER’S WARNING Wellington i« experiencing a spell of very dry weather. This experience Is common to practically the whole of the country, and that such conditions usually associated with Februaiy should have developed early in December carries its own warning. ■Wherever in the suburbs people depend on tank water the drain of the last six weeks of dry weather is being acutely felt. At Johnsonville, Upper Hutt, Point Howard, and some of the other points of settlement on the eastern side of the harbour have been carrying water for the past week. On, the subject of the city’s water supply, the city engineer (Mr. G. A. Hart) stated yesterday that be had already taken preliminary steps toward the conservation of water, by warning all householders that hosing of any kind, where there is no meter, is now contrary to the by-law, and anyone detected hosing under such conditions will lie proceeded against. What further action might be taken depended on the weather. The situation at present was that the streams supplying the Orongorongo and Wainui mains were falling away rapidly in volume, and should the prevailing conditions continue, those sources of supply were likely to diminish even more rapidly than they had during the past two or three weeks. Wellington had never been well situated so far as the storage of water was concerned, and n dry spell so early in the summer , was by no means reassuring. The City Council had the power to ••prohibit hosing altogether. That was the next step to take if the drought continued. “We really do not want to act as policemen in this mutter.” said Mr. Hurt. “We would rather appeal to the public to be careful and conscientious in the use of water and do their best to help us, as we are. after all. only concerned with the well-being of the public as a whole.”