WATER SUPPLY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21279, 24 February 1939, Page 6

WATER SUPPLY

Downland Scheme Taking Shape Various Works in Progress Work on the downland water supply scheme is now showing definite results. The arch of the dam in the Te Ngawai Gorge has been completed, and men are erecting the control structure. In about three months’ time the headworks should be finished. In addition to the control structure, silt traps and an electric turbidity control have to be installed. The indications are that if there is a serious drought next summer it will be possible to use part of the scheme to relieve the position. A continuous supply is not likely to be available because the water would have to be shut off to finish reservoirs. On the second section of the pipe line past Albury Park, about two and a half miles of cement-lined 13-inch pipes have been laid. The excavating machine is cutting a ditch about a mile ahead, through heavy shingle and stones. The present dry state of the country is demonstrated by the way dust is rising from the bottom of the three-foot ditch. About 20 miles of 13ineh pipe have still to be laid before the Claremont reservoir is reached. Including the sub-mains, there will be 58 miles of large piping. The present rate of progress is about half a mile a week. The pipes are joined together with a collar around which concrete and then molten lead is run in.

The pipe laying machine is operating on the downs behind Pleasant Point. Something like 30 000 feet of pipe has been laid, but that quantity is small when it is remembered that more than 3.000.000 feet of piping is involved in the scheme. Reservoirs are in hand at Claremont and Sutherlands, and excavating -work starts to-day on the reservoir behind Pleasant Point. Ultimately, construction work will proceed on six reservoirs.