WATER SUPPLY MAY BE CUT IN SUBURBS WITHOUT WARNING

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 March 1947, Page 4

WATER SUPPLY MAY BE CUT IN SUBURBS WITHOUT WARNING

NO POWER FOR PUMFS

Without warning, residents in certain Wanganui suburbs may find the water supply cut off. That may happen any day this week. It may even happen to-day, stated (lie city engineer, Mr. L. F. Kow, yesterday, adding that the period during which the water supply la cut off will not extend to more titan two hours at a time. In the meantime the hosing of gardens ami lawns is strictly prohibited.

Explaining the reason for the “distinct. possibility” of the necessity for cutting off water, Mr. Row said that the power cuts had eliminated the use of part of the Kai Iwi water-pumping plant. It would be impossible to permit hosing again till full power was restored in the district.

Quarter hour power cuts in every hour on Friday and again on Saturday were making pumping operations from Kai Iwi so complicated and difficult that the electric pumps had to be switched off permanently to avoid burn-outs or breakdowns.

Mr. Row explained that although the power was off for only quarter hour periods, it was taking more than half an hour to restore full pressure to the mains, but on top of that back surges were being experienced and undue loading on power transmission had developed the danger of serious damage to plant. Although the district’s current dry spell is the worst in years, water hai been short in Wanganui these past few weeks only because the draw-off has been exceeding the capacity of the mains from Kai Iwi to the city. Hope was expressed by Mr. Row that the restrictions on hosing of gardens, imposed as from Saturday last, would be effective in conserving a large quantity of the daily draw-off. Mr. Row said that the position as it obtained at the Westmere reservoir could be appreciated by the public if they remembered a few facts. The reservoir lias a capacity of about 4,500,000 gallons, but at present only 1,000,000 gallons are available. It Is usually kept full by the pumping In of approximately 3,000,000 gallons a day when the draw-off amounts to that figure. Recently the dry spell caused many residents to resort te the hosing of gardens or lawns, resulting in the draw-off rising to as much as 3,300,000 gallons daily. Hosing ,wa-s restricted to half an hour daily, and the draw* off fell to a more reasonable figure. Without tho power-operated pumps it is possible to cope with a draw-off of 2,.500,000 gallons a day, hut if the public would cooperate to the extent of reducing their demands to 2,000,000 gallons, the extra 500,000 gallons daily would enable the storage in the reservoir to be raised to its capacity of four and a-half millions in little more than a week. A reserve of water is essential in case of an emergency, such as a major fire or broken mains

As far as the cutting off of water in certain suburbs is concerned, the superintendent of the Fire Brigade, Mr. N ,M. Ross, has been conferred with and complete preparation ha* been made to assure that, as far as Is practicable, water will ne available for fire-fighting purposes in such areas. Mr. Row emphasised that it was essential that people made sure that their taps were not left turned on in the event of water being cut off. Otherwise, he said, waste might occur when the water was restored.