CITY WATER SUPPLY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25058, 23 November 1944, Page 4

CITY WATER SUPPLY

Given reasonable care in the use of water for gardens, washing cars and in industry, Auckland should get through this summer without-the severe .trials of the past few years. Factors reducing the demands on the city, supplies this year are the fewer camps of the armed forces and the smaller number of industries which have to maintain almost continuous shifts in war production. It is satisfactory that the plans for the new dam across the Lower Nihotupu Valley have been completed and that tenders for its construction are about to be called. Whether the structure will be an earth dam or one of concrete will not be decided until after the tenders have been received. One thing to be said in favour of the earth dam is that the material is on the spot and the work can be expedited by the use of machinery. Whether private contractors have available the carryalls, bulldozers and excavators which make short work of shifting mountains—as witness the operations of the construction battalions of the services—is another matter. The Works Department had many of these implements, however, and it might give favourable consideration to their use on the waterworks. Auckland's water needs are so urgent that the city is entitled to a high priority in having both labour and plant made available to it. But earth or concrete or any other type of dam does not matter much to the average citizen. He will be content to leave that to the experts so long as he is assured that the work will be pushed ahead with all possible speed.