13 February 2019
Media: Daily Post
Topic: Summer water consumption
Enquiry
I was just after a quick update on how the pumps were coping with the continued dry spell.
Has more water been used this past week than the pumps can handle?
Subsequent questions following initial response:
Is the "no significant rain on the horizon" a concern for council?
How many leaks have been reported? Are there too many for teams to head to?
Response
Rotorua Lakes Council, Water Operations Manager, Eric Cawte:
With no significant rain on the horizon, there is a risk that more people will start increasing their water use, so we urge people to remain conscious about their water consumption and reduce water wastage wherever possible to ensure our pumps can keep up and maintain adequate water in our reservoirs.
As the dry spell continues and temperatures rise, water use does remain a lot higher than usual, particularly in the Central and Eastern areas. Currently our pumps are managing to cope with the higher demand and are refilling our reservoirs to appropriate levels overnight. However a couple of big consumption days can quickly set us back and we usually see this happen over weekends.
Council continues to monitor the situation on a regular basis and may issue a further update prior to the weekend. Keep an eye on Council's website and Facebook page for information.
We currently have a number of water conservation messages running and as a result we are receiving an increased number of reports relating to water leaks around the district. We commend people for calling these in. Our teams are doing their best to prioritise and attend to these reports, as well as manage their routine work. We would like to assure people that while there may be some delays, particularly on smaller leaks, they will be fixed.
Additionally, we are receiving some reports about leaks on private property. If there is doubt about whether or not a leak is from private pipes or the Council's mains, we recommend people turn off their toby (a toby is the water shut-off valve, generally located at the boundary of your property, that sits between the council water main and your private water pipe) and if the leak stops, then it is the owner's responsibility and a plumber will need to be arranged to tend to the leak. If the leak continues, the issue is likely to be within Council mains and once reported InfraCore will be dispatched to investigate and repair in due course.
Response to subsequent questions:
It would become a concern if it results in people continuing to increase their water use above the already high levels.
Over the last week, reports of leaks have averaged 11 per day, compared to an overall average of 9 per day for January and February to date. This extra workload needs to be managed alongside routine work as well as a small backlog of non-urgent work which accumulated over the Christmas break when only skeleton crews were on duty.
With 800km of water mains plus thousands of connections, hydrants and valves to manage, we do rely on the eyes and ears of our community to inform us of any issues.
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Media: Daily Post
Topic: National polytechnic/institutes of technology changes
Enquiry
Reporter sought Mayor's comment on today's midday announcement regarding proposed changes for polytechnics/institutes of technology:
Would it be possible to get some comment from around 150 words about what you think about these proposed changes and what could the potential impact be on Rotorua.
The reporter provided the following link to NZHerald online story regarding the announcement:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12203337
Response
From Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick:
I have yet to see the detail about the announcement so can't comment about the proposal specifically.
However, whatever shape this ultimately takes needs to feature a real focus on career pathways and apprenticeships as being central to enabling our young people to achieve their training and work aspirations and get good employment outcomes.
We also know that there is a need to bridge current skills gaps that exist in our own district and across New Zealand as a whole, and we've always said that there needs to be a very strong link between business sector needs and what's provided by our vocational training institutes.
*See THIS LINK to view the Minister's news release regarding today's announcement. This also includes link to further information, facts sheets etc
