WATER CARRIED BY LORRY TO RELIEVE SHORTAGE ON COAST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22582, 10 March 1948, Page 6

WATER CARRIED BY LORRY TO RELIEVE SHORTAGE ON COAST

EFFECTS closely approximating to drought conditions are being felt by residents of the East Coast townships, where tank-water supplies were exhausted long ago and springs and creeks have been depended on where available.

In most of the townships water is being: carted in tanks on lorries, and residents are hard put to it to meet their most economical domestic requirements. Health services at various points are under severe handicaps, it is reported, and Works Department lorries are spending a good deal of time supplying water to the working centres of district nurses, to post offices, police stations and other official headquarters. The water supply on which Te Puia Hospital depends has become decidedly shaky during the past week or two, and private institutions which normally draw their supply from the Waiapu Hospital Board’s service have been cut off in order to conserve what supply remains for the use of the hospital. Drop In Lake Level The lake from which the supply originates is some distaice from the hospital, and the pipeline has given trouble on previous occasions. A tendency to develop airlocks has not yet been cured, and there are other handicaps to full and free use of the water. The chief of these handicaps is the speedy drop in the level of the lake, and it is calculated that unless copious rain falls within a week or two the hospital may have to depend on water carried in bulk from other sources. Reports have been circulating that Te Puia Hospital may be closed, but there has beep no encouragement given to such reports by the W’aiapu Hospital Board. Even if (lie piped water supply were to give out the hospital could be kept going from other sources, it is held; and the dispersal of cases to other hospitals or to their homes is not contemplated as yet.

I The Te Puia Hotel, which has a ! strong hold on tourist popularity, is to stay open while water can be secured to replace the normal supply. The hotel normally draws its supply from the Waiapu Hospital Board’s source, but lately it has been depending on lorried water, and every possible economy measure has been enforced.

1 Statements now circulating that the hotel is to close down for a week or two are premature, at least, it was learned today. There is no intention of turning away guests so long as the hotel services can be maintained.

Waiapu Very Low Creeks and rivers all along the coastal strip are showing the effects of the prolonged dry weather. The Waiapu River is reported to be extremely low, and some of its tributary streams are no more than trickles. Springs in open country have been drying up. and growth on the gravel fiats adjacent to many rivers is dyifig off as the fall in water-levels progresses. There still remains, however, plenty of evidence that sheep and cattle are in good heart. The hills on the coastal strip, though perhaps not so browned off as those in the neighbourhood of Gisborne, are carrying litile feed at present. Yet stock handled through the freezing works shows no sign of deterioration.

The lack of autumn growth is worrying stock-breeders, however, as a good autumn recovery would mean a lot during the winter to come, and the recovery will be limited now. From the time when rain begins to fall to the time of the first frosts is likely to be only a few weeks, and this will not provide much of an opportunity for growth in the pastures.