NELSON WATER SUPPLY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 17 November 1937, Page 3

NELSON WATER SUPPLY

ITo Tlio Kilitorl Sir. Kver since I arrived in Nelson, (here has been a shortage of water every summer, with restrictions, penalties. and lines as regards use of hose, and an entire absence of water in the upper zone'; of tli" city during at least pari ol every day. I do not know exactly how long this lias continued, but old inhabitants tell me il has always been the same. Incidentally, let me remind your readers again that our Consulting En-gineer-Mr Williams in his report to the t.'itv Council, appearing in your issue of 27th July, 15)514. remarked: "In Nelson where no restriction has bcci. imposed upon the use of water.” I mention this because Mr Williams is supposed to know all about our troubles, which he evidently did not when he made such a s'otemenl. The danger is that the City Council, which is here to-day and gone to-morrow, naturally shelter themselves in technical matters behind their consulting engineer. II i.- the ratepayers who have lo pay for mistakes. 1 myself who have devoted some of the best years of my life to waterworks engineering, have been constantly writing to "The Mail" since 1 arrived in Nelson some 12 years ago, and personally. on many occasions, have made suggestions to the City Engineer, as to the best means of getting over some ol our troubles not for any particular feeling of affection or altruism, but because. like so many others. I was being constantly exposed to the risk of lire, not to mention the many inconveniences and the expense of a restricted supply, under which householders have te provide themselves with storage tanks. It was not. however, until just a year ago that I took the trouble to study our local conditions a little more thoroughly, since when some score ol letters on the subject have appeared with my signature, giving the best advice I am capable of. with the meagre and limited information at my disposal to try and help put matters on a better footing. So far as 1 know this advice has been followed in one instance only, that of taking Kirkpatricks from the high level supply. This lias improved the pressure immensely in the upper zones. There are many other simple and inexpensive remedies that would lead tc equally good results, such as the stop ping of useless waste of water, due tc, leaky pipes and fittings, by adopting the ordinary methods of testing; supplying (In' city indirectly through service reservoirs at reasonable working pressures, instead ot trying to do so directly through trunk mains—too small for the purpose—and at pressures too high for economy. Nelson is without doubt one of the, simplest and easiest towns in the world to supply, having an almost unlimited quantity of pure filtered water within half a mile of the city stored in the Maitai gravels, only requiring oumping to one of the numerous elevated sites that surround us. it is all so extremely simple, but it did not appeal to our City Engineer or the City Council, who seem to want something more spectacular —a brand new supply from the Rod mg—quite regardless of cost; whether there is sufficient water at all times; • r whether it is turbid in Hood time, cr unduly mineralised when low, as at present, Fortunately this summer there appears to be some prospect of putting matters to the test as regards quantity, and if proper means arc provided In test the discharge by fixing a parmanent notch gauge in flic river bed. In the meantime I would again urge the City Council to duplicate the Han--by Park pumping station, delivering the water into a service reservoir on one of the adjoining elevations. This will be wanted whatever happens, as is already all too evident, when another week or so as at present will see all our storage exhausted, and more stringent restrictions adopted. We are likely to want pumping capacity of at least one million gallons per day if we | are to avoid serious (rouble during the . next lew years.

Of all people in the world those in : Nelson are surely the most long suf- • t'ering, otherwise they would never ; have ailowed the present unsatisfactory ; ; state of things to have continued so i long. Good slashing criticism is. in my i opinion, wanted more than anything | ■else, m order to stir liie public and the City Council from their apathy. We had it in Brisbane in my day, when the Water Board was rightlyknown in the Press as the “Mud Board" because of the bad water supplied. The result is that Brisbane is now among | the best governed cities in Australia, | and has one of my then junior assistants, as its city engineer, i One other matter 1 see that Tahuna , is proposing to lay 2 inch and li inch diameter water pipes. No public mains ! should ever be less than 4 inch. They ! all corrode in time, and the discharging capacity varies as the square of the diameter Assuming i inch of corrosion all round, and the discharge of the 2 inch pipe to be equal to 1, then the 1! | inch will discharge 4. and the 4 inch ; t» times as much as the 2 inch pipe. ; Yet there is little actual difference in I the total all in cost of laying such ! mains, because the large item of labour is practically the same in each case. On the other hand a 4 inch main, with adequate pressure, provides elficient I fire protection. Nothing smaller really j does. i Small water mains never give satis- | faction in the long run, and have to be I replaced For this reason I have laid j nothing less than 4 inch in any work I 1 have been responsible for during the last 40 years, and this practice is now almost universal j By the way. are ratepayers to see MiWilliams’ latest report oh the Roding. or is there'danger we should know too 1 much?—l am, etc.. H G FOSTER BARHAM Nelson, lhth November.