WATER SUPPLY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1925, Page 4

WATER SUPPLY.

It is not often that any part of Taranaki need worry very much over its water supply, as Nature generally attends faithfully to that, but seven weeks of almost uninterrupted dry weather has bad its effect even upon New Plymouth’s abundant supply. Hence the council’s precautionary measures. Hence also, the incumbency on all users to go steadily with the use of water until rain comes again. New Plymouth people have got into the habit of wasting water. Their consumption, according to (he engineer, is not less than 100 gallons per head per day, against the usual consumption of 50 gallons. Supplies in the past have been so abundant (hat it has been unnecessary to economise, and the extravagant habit so contracted is responsible for the emptying of the reservoir. It is not that there is insufficient water in the river supplying the reservoir. We are assured that there is ample. The trouble is that the pipes connecting the two are inadequate to meet the demand at a dry time like the present. The engineer states a material difference will be made when the new and old forebays are connected, as had been intended. Since the town is growing rapidly, and therefore the consumption of water with it, it would seem sound policy to consider ways and means of making this connection, duplicating. the pipe lines, and increasing the capacity of the reservoir.