Watercare says a majority of the heavy rain in the last couple of days in Auckland has been soaked up by the dry ground rather than running off into the storage lakes.
Wairoa dam, Auckland. Photo: Supplied / Watercare
Dam levels have only increased by less than one percent overnight to 57.85 percent, still far below the historical average of 80.88 percent for this time of year.
Manager of improvement programmes Anin Nama said the city had a long dry period so it would need more rain for the ground to get saturated first and then run off into the dams. He said the dams were expected to respond better in the coming days after consistent rain.
He said the new Papakura water treatment plant, which was put into use last month, would increase water supply by six million litres per day (MLD). He said the Pukekohe water treatment plant, brought back to service October last year, would contribute five million litres per day.
"The biggest addition to our sources will be the Waikato additional 50 million liters of water per day, and that's due for completion in June," he said, referring to a new temporary plant being set up next the to exsiting Waikato water treatment plant in Tūākau.
Watercare is also doing upgrades at the Onehunga water treatment plant to boost production by 4MLD.
Nama said the target for water sonsumption for the first half of March was 485 MLD and yesterday's seven-day rolling average was 427 million litres.
"Aucklanders are doing a great job. This saves a lot of water. We still want Aucklanders to use water wisely. You can use an outdoor hose provided it is fitted with a trigger nozzle," he said.