Despite the tightening of rules, residents can still water their gardens with a hose. Photo: Pixabay
The Wellington region moves into level 2 water restrictions today, meaning a ban on household garden sprinklers and irrigation systems.
Wellington Water said the restrictions gave the region a chance to avoid a stricter ban, while it struggled to fix the ageing pipe network.
Not all Wellingtonians that RNZ spoke to were aware of the restrictions that start today, and they had mixed views about how they would conserve water.
"I'll cut down showers for sure," Portia Cottle said.
"I like my showers. They are a little bit long probably but I don't use a lot of water otherwise," Monika Hanson said.
"I did also stock up on dry shampoo so that I can still have vaguely clean hair during the work week," Catherine Bignell said.
"Let's shave off a couple of minutes ... go from half an hour to 25 [minutes]," James Mulligan said.
"Just sort of keep an eye on the forecast and only water the gardens when it is necessary," Rebecca Bain said.
Wellington Water regulatory services director Charles Barker said high water demand, warmer temperatures and the end of the holiday season meant now was the best time for action.
"It's time to move to a higher level before we experience the very peak of demand which always occurs around Wellington anniversary weekend. If we move now into level 2 that gives us the best chance that we have to avoid more and fair restrictions later on," Barker said.
Despite the tightening of rules, residents can still water their gardens with a hose.
Demand for subsidised 200-litre water tanks in Porirua has been high with the council getting 80 calls a day since Christmas.
Mayor Anita Baker is encouraging everyone to do their bit to help conserve water, but suspected the region's water woes would only get worse.
"Going to level 2 we know it's bad and I suspect by the end of January we'll be at level 3 because we haven't got any rain planned or forecast so we do need people to start restricting what they use."
Teams looking for breaches
Wellington Water's regulatory services director Charles Barker said sprinkler patrol teams would be out and about in the region on the lookout for breaches of the water restrictions.
He said most instances were usually a mistake and the teams were intended to inform rather than enforce.
"Enforcement and fines aren't going to get us through the water shortage, all of us working together will. So we're not recommending an enforcement strategy to our councils. We're recommending an education and participation strategy. That's what they've bought into and we can see it working really effectively at level one and level two," Barker said.
Zone meters across suburbs were already showing the majority of Wellingtonians were responding well to the restrictions and conserving water where they could.
Barker said he understood the frustration caused by leaking infrastructure while restrictions on personal use were in place.
He said he believed Wellington Water was efficient in its work to address the leaks across the region.
"We do appreciate that it is really frustrating for some of our residents who have to walk past, what we class as a small leak, but for them is getting a really frustrating leak. All we do is ask them to have understanding that while we're not fixing that leak, its not because we're not doing anything, it's because we're out finding a bigger leak that can make a real difference to the water loss.
"If we do that, we can reduce the amount of time that the whole region has to spend in water restrictions," Barker said.
Wellington Water said there was a 76 percent chance the region would jump to level 3 restrictions at some point this summer.
This would mean a total ban on water use outdoors.
A further jump to level 4 would mean Wellingtonians could only have two-minute showers and limit laundry to one load per week.
Wellington's aged and damaged infrastructure is leaking in 3000 places - and 45 percent of the water supply is being lost.
Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell said some of the pipes were 100 years old.
"We have enough funding to fix the leaks as they occur so we're keeping the water in the network and we're replacing our pipe network and the ideal rate for that is 100 kilometres a year. We're currently doing around 26," Haskell said.
She said the problem came down to some councils not being able to fully afford to fix the backlog of issues with the water network.
Wellington Water estimates the repairs will cost $1 billion a year over a decade.