HUTT WATER LOAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 42, 19 February 1942, Page 9

HUTT WATER LOAN

POLL ON SATURDAY

BADLY-NEEDED-WORK

The poll on the proposal to raise a loan of £.160,530 for the improvement of the water supply to the City of Lower Hutt will be held on Saturday. Only ratepayers are entitled to vote.

For many years the supply of water to Lower Hutt, though it is drawn from the practically unlimited resources of artesian beds below the site of the city, has been limited by the capacity of the wells, the pumps, the reservoir, and the mains. The reservoir and the principal mains have been the most serious handicap, having been designed over thirty years ago, when the present city was but a township. The population is now six times what it was then. In spite of additional wells and pumping equipment, the facilities cannot provide a water service adequate to either the population or the area, and the time for making simple additions and . "boosting" arrangements has expired..Only a complete new system will meet the requirements. . : ■■ ■ ■ NO INCREASE IN RATES. . Fortunately', this will be a . painless loan; it will not require an increase in the present rates. This is the resultof the city finances having been readjusted so that the debt burden has been reduced and the rates will now provide just, enough, over the other charges upon them, to meet the interest and sinking fund on the loan. The projected works include a new reservoir more than three times as large as the present one, and at such a height as to give a high pressure supply all over the city area, and water will be pumped to it from new wells by a pumping station of large capacity. From the reservoir the water will be distributed by means of ample size, and the whole system is designed to ensure that for years to come the city will have a supply without any diminution of pressure due to heavy demand. The existing reservoir and mains on ■the western side of the river, now serving the whole city, will be retained to serve the western area, and will be tied in with the new works.

Altogether the proposals are calculated to put the city in an enviable position in regard to water supply, which will be in great contrast to that which now exists and which has for years been a cause not only of irritation to the people but of anxiety to the authorities. >