ARTESIAN SUPPLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 85, 10 April 1935, Page 12

ARTESIAN SUPPLIES

AT LOW COST TO CITY

AMPLE FOR TEN YEARS

FUTURE SAFEGUARDED

"I think I can say to citizens that they need have no fears as to the water supply in the future, at any rate for a good ten years," said the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, speaking at Kelburn last evening of the success of the preliminary work done in connection with the. securing of additional supplies from artesian bores in the Hutt Valley and of the low cost of such supplies as compared with what would have been the cost had the* major surface supply scheme proposed been embarked upon. The City, said Mr. Hislop, had been threatened with a serious shortage during the past exceptional summer, and the council-had had to impose restrictions on the use of water. Fortunately the position had not become really acute, though the conditions had been dangerously near that stage. . Two years ago the citizens had approved the council's proposal that money should be borrowed for waterworks purposes, for the construction of high level reservoirs and other works, and for artesian supplies. It had been hoped to have had the extra supply available last summer, but many difficulties had cropped up, and the delays had been' unavoidable. Now | the negotiations had been completed, specifications had been sent to London, and shortly the pumping plant would be installed,,and in operation in the Hutt Valley to deliver the water from the bores into the existing mains, and when once the plant came into, commission Wellington was assured of all the water the City would reasonably require for at least ten years. AN ENORMOUS SAVING. "Not only have we made provision for an adequate supply of excellent water," said Mr. Hislop, "but we have done so with an enormous saving on the scheme that . was contemplated earlier, when it was proposed that the City, Lower Hutt, Petone, Eastbourne, Upper Hutt, and the Hutt County should join in a scheme to obtain water from a point near the confluence of the Whakatikei and Hutt Rivers by means of a dam and long pipe line. For one reason or another some of the bodies dropped out of the scheme for the time being. That scheme would have cost half asmillion pounds, a huge expenditure indeed. The prejudice against using artesian water as! ah auxiliary supply has disappeared, and the City is assured of an ample additional supply, not by an expenditure of almost half a million pounds, but for £20,000. In other words, the total cost of giving the City the extra supply needed will be less than the interest for one year on the sum that would have been expended on the scheme originally contemplated. "At the same time the future is fully safeguarded. The artesian supply will not meet Wellington's requirements for all time. No one pretends that it will, but the City and Suburban Water Board, of which the Mayor of Wellington is chairman, is charged with the .safeguarding . and afforestation of the great catchment areas of the head waters of the Hutt, Akatarawa, and Whakatikei .Rivers, from which, when.. the need arises, water, supplies for a great metropolitan area can be drawn. While,the immediate requirements are being met from artesian supplies the long view is also being taken, but the time has not yet arrived for the undertaking of the major water supply scheme.1' .• Mr. Hislop said that the council had also in hand means for the removal of ft complaint that was heard from time to time of discoloured water from ; the City's reservoirs. "I am told that a great fuss is to be made about this discoloration by \ the enemy when •their campaign is opened, but there is nothing much in it. On occasions, after heavy rain, discoloration does take place, but the water is perfectly potable, and we have under consideration proposals for the installation of a filtration plant which will deal effectively with the problem and will remove all discoloration."