Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) is asking residents to conserve water this summer to try and prevent water restrictions.

With the hottest part of the year just around the corner, combined with the busy Christmas and New Year’s period water restrictions are a real possibility.

QLDC Chief Engineer Ulrich Glasner explains that demand for water soars over summer.

“With the hot weather finally arriving and here to stay, people use a lot of water on their lawns and gardens or washing their boats. Consequently this means some of our communities often face water restrictions when the demand is greater than our system can supply.”

“The recent hot weather has already put several communities’ water supply under pressure, particularly in Arrowtown and Luggate. While we haven’t had to place restrictions on water use just yet, this could change very quickly if the reservoir levels continue to fall and can’t recover.”

Mr Glasner said an hour a day of irrigation was considered a fair share of total water for the day. He recommended people also use timers to turn their irrigation systems on between midnight and 6.00am when demand on the water supply was at its lowest.

There are many simple things we can do to conserve water and if we all start doing one or two of them now, hopefully we’ll reduce the chance of water restrictions this summer. Tips include:

• Water gardens by hand rather than setting a sprinkler.

• Use a simple timer for your sprinkler. Water your lawn for an hour between midnight and 6.00am, when demand on the water supply is low.

• Check the arc of your sprinkler and make sure you’re watering the garden or lawn, not the path and driveway.

• Wash dishes and clothes when you have a full load.

• Take shorter showers: shaving a minute from your daily shower can save up to 18 litres. Most mains-pressure showers use 9 to 18 litres of water every minute, so more than five minutes in the shower could be using more water than you'd need for a bath.

• Check for and fix leaks: A leaking toilet may not be obvious, but it can waste thousands of litres of water in a year

For more information about Queenstown Lakes District water restrictio

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