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The community group wants to put a drought relief strategy in place after the unprecedented dry season, which has seen severe water shortages and the Matakana falls reduced to a trickle.
Drought conditions and desperate shortages have prompted Matakana Community Group (MCG) to seek alternative sources of water, including a look at whether town water connection might be a future possibility.
With tanks running dry and up to eight-week waits for deliveries, February’s MCG quarterly meeting heard from secretary Liz Sharek that the present water situation was “untenable”.
“We need potable water and we need extreme strategies. It’s ridiculous at the moment, a health and safety issue. And businesses are affected, too,” she said.
“This summer is so dry, but it’s not exceptional – these conditions do and will re-occur on a regular basis. The population is growing, and there are large subdivisions going in when the private water carriers can’t keep up with present demand.”
She added that as Watercare already had an established wastewater network in place throughout Matakana, Point Wells and Omaha, that could potentially make the addition of a town water supply swifter and more straightforward.
Scott McCallum said local bore licences were no longer being issued, and dams would be the most effective means of extra supply.
“Years ago, there used to be a test dam at Waiwhiu (in the Dome Valley),” he said. “There’s a huge potential to trap water up there and bring it down. It would be a gravity system, and it wouldn’t interfere with the aquifer.”
Rodney Local Board member Beth Houlbrooke said it was unlikely that everyone would be keen on the idea of switching from tank to town water – being “metered and treated” – and the cost of connection could also be an obstacle.
Councillor Greg Sayers said he would be happy to set up a preliminary meeting with Watercare, just so the MCG could understand the exploratory processes that might be required should enough local residents show an interest in connecting to a reticulated system in future.
Members voted to ask Cr Sayers to set up such a meeting, as well as approach Point Wells and Omaha to see if they were interested in the idea of reticulation, and to come up with a drought response plan before next summer.
Cr Sayers said afterwards that any such meeting about reticulation for Matakana would only be to gather facts about the processes, options and costs involved, as well as the likelihood of Watercare even being prepared to explore the idea.
“Those facts would then need to be presented back to the MCG to see if they wanted to canvass the wider affected area of households in Matakana to see if there was any significant interest and/or likely uptake to join a reticulated water system,” he said. “There may not be. People may be quite happy with the status quo, especially if an alternative supply of water could be made available in drought conditions.”
