CITY WATER SUPPLY

Evening Star, Issue 19844, 18 April 1928, Page 5

CITY WATER SUPPLY

UPPER LEVEL DIFFICULTIES CITY ENGINEER INVESTIGATING The city water supply is a problem that has confronted the ratepayers and councillors of Dunedin for many years past. The question, one of paramount importance and interest to the whole community, has been exhaustively studied from many aspects. Schemes mooted in the past, their advantages and disadvantages, and the difficulties besetting the present system formed the basis of a comprehensive review of the subject by Mr E._ Sincock at a meeting of the Dunedin City Ratepayers’ Association last evening. “ The problem that has been exercising the minds of the ratepayers,’ said Mr Sincock, “is the shortage, of water and the difficulties experienced in some of the higher levels of the city, particularly the top of Roslyn and Anderson’s Bay. A great deal of criticism has been levelled at the City Council for apparent inactivity in the matter. I have interviewed the city engineer (Mr J. C. Alexander), and find that he is investigating the subject very fully, and is not prepared to lay his report before the Water Committee or the City Council before tho whole thing has been properly considered. Tho question of water has been before the council time and time again for many, many years, and it has not yet arrived at tho point where it is possible to get the ratepayers to agree with the recommendation of the council.” Reports had been furnished as tar back as 1893, and from then on a series were laid before the various councils. In 1920 Messrs Hay and M'Curdie furnished a report dealing with suggestions and propositions covering the whole area and three different schemes were laid before the public for consideration. The first was the Deep Stream, with an area of 100,000 acres; the second the Leo Stream, with an area of 71,500 acres; tho third tho Waipori area of 93,418 acres. These throe wore considered at various times by the authorities, and then tho report of tho late Mr Couston and Mr Williams was procured. The present watershed area was comprised of 15,107 acres, the average supply per acre being 200 gallons in twenty-four hours. If these figures were accepted as correct it would moan that there was from four and a-half to five times more water than was daily consumed by the people. The difficulty was not the area being too small, but the holding capacity, which at the present time was onlv 165,000,000 gallons. They could not retain or hold anything like what it was possible to hold. The engineer was not prepared to go outside the present watershed .area until he had reported thoroughly on the present facilities, and it was to bo hoped that ho would soon be in a position to say whether he had discovered a suitable site for a reservoir or clam. The difficulty was to find one to supply the upper levels. Sullivan’s dam could, but it was too small. The intention, Mr Sincock believed, when the engineer was satisfied, was to recommend something in the nature of a?i extra pipe from Sullivan’s dam, or from a new holder, to supply the upper levels. In 1020 the Water Committee went into the Lee Stream project. Tho reports in connection with the purity of tho water were quite satisfactory. It was stated that there was enough water there to supply the whole of tho city and suburbs for the next fifty or 100 years. When the proposition was put to the ratepayers it was rejected by a large majority. The council was forced back to consider ways and means of improving the present system. The estimated cost in connection with the Lee Stream was £175,(100. At tho present time 20 to 25 per cent, would have to be added to that. The Deep Stream would have run into about £300,000. A later suggestion was to wait until tho Waipori Lake and clam scheme had been completed, and if it was not satisfactory to go back to tho Lee Stream or the Deep Stream. The average consumption per head in the city was eighty gallons per day—a fairly heavy draw-off. During four months of the year there was a cry of shortage of water, but when the rains came tho cry censed.

The engineer was still investigating, but it would not bo fair to divulge tho locality of his investigations, as from the moment it was known that a public body required land the value of that land went up considerably. Ho had been candid in his admission that tho pumping was only temporary and could not last for any great length of time. Messrs Williams and Couston had stated that there was no necessity lor the ratepayers to go to tho expense of bringing water from anywhere but the present area. What tho council had done had been done out of revenueIf they went further afield they would have to borrow to find tho money, which meant an increased rate. Mr P. Ritchie: What about tho £IOO,OOO spent on the Town Hall? Mr Sincock: Wc can’t discuss that now—that’s done.

Continuing, Mr Sincock said that forty-five or fifty years ago it might have been considered advisable to go to some of tho big lakes—Wannka, Hawea, or even Wakatipu—but at such a cost that it would require the assistance of all the districts tho water passed through. In conclusion. Mr Sincock said Mr Tannock was strongly of the opinion that if the residents and ratepayers allowed tho continuation of tree-planting it would he a most valuable proposition, as the trees got tho benefit of tho fogs and mist. Mr Ritchie stated that every night the water was taken off the high levels, and if there was a big fire up at the top of Roslyn there would lie no chance of putting it out. If the water was put on there would not bo enough force to drive it.. Tho water could bo taken to a fire, but it would be useless. Tho superintendent of the Fire Brigade had said that such a fire could not be put out. Tho present position constituted a great menace to the district. At 11.30 p.m- they could hardly get water at all. The residents apparently could got no redress. After a brief discussion it was resolved, on the motion of Mr J. T. Cooper, that the City Council should ho urged to instruct tho engineer to expedite his report and bring matters concerning the water question to a finality. Mr Sincock was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.