Watercare Thanks Aucklanders For Mindful Water Use As Dam Levels Start To Recover
A wetter than normal April has pushed Auckland's dam levels above the 'preparing for drought' level, prompting Watercare to wrap up its 'Easy Does It' water efficiency campaign with a thank you to Aucklanders.
Watercare activated its Drought Management Plan in early March and stepped up its water conservation messaging when dam levels dropped below the 'preparing for drought' trigger point.
Watercare head of water Sharon Danks says since then, Auckland's water demand has come down significantly and the region's water supply dams have enjoyed a top-up from recent rainfall.
'We started the month with total dam storage sitting at 59.5 per cent and daily water usage about 472 million litres a day. Today, our total dam storage is 65.3 per cent, and Aucklanders are using about 424 million litres a day.
'That's a significant difference, and it's lifted us out of the 'preparing for drought' zone in our Drought Management Plan.
'The winter forecast is for about normal rainfall, and our modelling indicates our dam levels will climb steadily from June onwards.
'We'd like to thank Auckland residents and businesses who have made small but meaningful changes to their daily water use habits over the past few months. Of course, water is always a precious resource, and we'll continue to encourage everyone to use it wisely, regardless of dam levels or the weather.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Scoop
Why Did It Take So Long For An Emergency Alert To Be Issued During Auckland's Easter Floods?
Auckland Council has released to RNZ a detailed timeline of its response to the Easter storm last month, which saw parts of the city receive more than month's worth of rain in just over an hour. Council's data showed the peak intensity of the Easter storm had marginally exceeded that of the Auckland Anniversary flood two years ago – with more than 100mm of rain recorded in some suburbs. Healthy Waters' head of planning Nick Vigar described the Easter storm as a 'short, sharp burst' which had an overall similar severity as the Auckland Anniversary flood – both one in 100 year weather events. Auckland Council and MetService had been under fire for failing to issue weather alerts and warnings before the Friday night storm that saw streets and garages flooded, power outages and two people trapped in cars by floodwaters. Information provided by the Council showed Healthy Waters received its first alert of heavy rain around 10.29pm on Friday, however, it wasn't until 12.42am on Saturday that Auckland Emergency Management issued its first warning to the public – following MetService's storm watch issued at 12.07am. Vigar said their data showed that the most intense period was between midnight and 1am – where around 81.5mm rain fell within an hour. According to Auckland Council, the storm on the night of 18 April and the early hours of 19 April resulted in 10 families in Mount Roskill and Whau catchment area being displaced after their homes were flooded. They include two homes that were marked as category three properties following the Anniversary flood and Cyclone Gabrielle, that have not yet carried through with the buyout process and were flooded again. Council received a total of 87 requests for support, and of those, 23 homes were assessed as Category 3 properties following Cyclone Gabrielle. Healthy Waters responded to 193 stormwater related callouts between 19 and 21 April. A timeline of council's response to the Easter storm Friday 18 April, 10.29pm: Healthy Waters' on-call duty manager received the first automated alert when rain levels reached 15mm/hour Friday 18 April, 11.35pm: AEM received its first alert Saturday 19 April, 12.07am: MetService issued a severe thunderstorm watch Saturday 19 April, 12.19am: AEM's general manager Adam Maggs sent texts to a stakeholder group, including the mayor, deputy mayor, advising them that AEM is monitoring the thunderstorm cells passing over Auckland and are in contact with Fire and Emergency (FENZ) and council's call centre to monitor the situation Saturday 19 April, 12.37am: AEM duty team undertook its standard operating procedure – including emailing stakeholders including all elected members, monitoring FENZ callouts, rainfall gauges, liaising with Healthy Waters and council's call centre Saturday 19 April, 12.42am: AEM issued its first weather warning to Aucklanders through social media. Saturday 19 April, 1.35am: Maggs messaged the stakeholders group advising that the Incident Management Team is being activated due to the intense thunderstorms hitting the Mount Roskill area, and that they're looking to open a shelter there for community members. Saturday 19 April, 4.08am: Maggs messaged the stakeholders group to advise that a Civil Defence Centre will be opened in Three Kings around 4.30am. The Emergency Response Coordination Centre was activated to monitor and coordinate with FENZ. What are Auckland Council's own systems for monitoring rain levels? The council has 72 telemetred rain gauges across the city. When a significant volume of rainfall is reached, automated alerts are sent to the relevant teams. Healthy Waters, which has the lowest threshold for an alert to be triggered, is the earliest to be alerted. Healthy Waters gets alerted when rain reaches 15mm/hour Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) is alerted when rain reaches 25mm/hour The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is alerted when rain reaches 35mm/hour Meanwhile, there are also 168 hotspot sites that the council knows to be prone to flooding – 51 of those sites have remote cameras that can be monitored 24/7. Healthy Waters' operations team manager for central, Phillip Johansen, said multiple rain gauges were triggered on the Friday night of the Easter storm. The first alert received by Healthy Waters was at 10:29pm on 18 April. Alerts continued to be generated and sent through to the early hours of the morning of 19 April. Johansen said an on-call duty manager for Healthy Waters was getting alerts and monitoring the situation, and they first made contact with AEM between 1 and 2am. When asked why Healthy Waters didn't alert AEM when it received its first alert at 10.29pm, Johansen said their team alert AEM when dwellings begin to get flooded, but don't see it necessary to talk to AEM when some some catchments get blocked at a rain level of 15mm/hour. Vigar said up until midnight, less than 20mm of rain fell, and it wasn't until midnight that the rain intensity ramped up. Councillor Shane Henderson: Councils need to diversify their sources of information relating to weather, rather than rely on MetService When RNZ shared Auckland City Councillor Shane Henderson the different rain-level thresholds for triggering automated alerts via rain gauges, he said he feels there needs to be a conversation around these 'trigger points' and where improvements can be made. Henderson said he thought the response to the storm largely went okay, but he had concerns about the issue of communication and warning to the public – including the reliance on MetService to trigger alerts to the public during weather events. 'I'm a bit concerned about that point where we're relying on metservice to make those calls before rolling things out, I just encourage us to look at that,' he said. Henderson said there needed to be a nation-wide conversation around how councils could diversify the information they rely on during the lead up to potential severe weather events. Henderson was one of the first councillors to publicly raise concern about why weather warnings weren't issued earlier. Speaking to RNZ this week, Henderson said his main criticism was directed at MetService's delayed warning. He said he believed council's emergency management had done a 'fantastic job' and was a stark contrast to the handling of Cyclone Gabrielle – 'I think we've shown some clear improvement,' he said. When RNZ approached Auckland Council for comment on Henderson's calls, Maggs responded in a statement that the national CDEM plan – a statutory document – specifies MetService as the agency who maintains a weather forecasting service, issues weather warnings to the public, and contributes to the management of public information about weather hazards and associated emergencies. Maggs said MetService is responsible for providing scientific advice to the National Crisis Management Centre, agencies and civil defence groups. He added that it's also critical that the public act on the natural warning signs of flooding. 'If someone encounters rising floodwaters, they should not wait for a warning or alert but evacuate to higher ground immediately. People should also never drive, walk or swim through floodwaters,' he said. RNZ had also asked council whether it would consider giving more weight to Healthy Waters' alerts for heavy rainfall and its own rain gauge monitoring system, to trigger council's communication with the public about potential severe weather. Council's director of resilience and infrastructure Barry Potter said in a statement that AEM had responded appropriately to the Easter storm, drawing on a complex feed of weather reports, rainfall data and network information. 'The wellbeing of Aucklanders is utmost in our planning and response, and we continue to optimise our processes, working closely with our response partners in readiness for future events,' he said.
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Scoop
Why Did It Take So Long For An Emergency Alert To Be Issued During Auckland's Easter Floods?
Auckland Council has released to RNZ a detailed timeline of its response to the Easter storm last month, which saw parts of the city receive more than month's worth of rain in just over an hour. Council's data showed the peak intensity of the Easter storm had marginally exceeded that of the Auckland Anniversary flood two years ago - with more than 100mm of rain recorded in some suburbs. Healthy Waters' head of planning Nick Vigar described the Easter storm as a "short, sharp burst" which had an overall similar severity as the Auckland Anniversary flood - both one in 100 year weather events. Auckland Council and MetService had been under fire for failing to issue weather alerts and warnings before the Friday night storm that saw streets and garages flooded, power outages and two people trapped in cars by floodwaters. Information provided by the Council showed Healthy Waters received its first alert of heavy rain around 10.29pm on Friday, however, it wasn't until 12.42am on Saturday that Auckland Emergency Management issued its first warning to the public - following MetService's storm watch issued at 12.07am. Vigar said their data showed that the most intense period was between midnight and 1am - where around 81.5mm rain fell within an hour. According to Auckland Council, the storm on the night of 18 April and the early hours of 19 April resulted in 10 families in Mount Roskill and Whau catchment area being displaced after their homes were flooded. They include two homes that were marked as category three properties following the Anniversary flood and Cyclone Gabrielle, that have not yet carried through with the buyout process and were flooded again. Council received a total of 87 requests for support, and of those, 23 homes were assessed as Category 3 properties following Cyclone Gabrielle. Healthy Waters responded to 193 stormwater related callouts between 19 and 21 April. A timeline of council's response to the Easter storm Friday 18 April, 10.29pm: Healthy Waters' on-call duty manager received the first automated alert when rain levels reached 15mm/hour Friday 18 April, 11.35pm: AEM received its first alert Saturday 19 April, 12.07am: MetService issued a severe thunderstorm watch Saturday 19 April, 12.19am: AEM's general manager Adam Maggs sent texts to a stakeholder group, including the mayor, deputy mayor, advising them that AEM is monitoring the thunderstorm cells passing over Auckland and are in contact with Fire and Emergency (FENZ) and council's call centre to monitor the situation Saturday 19 April, 12.37am: AEM duty team undertook its standard operating procedure - including emailing stakeholders including all elected members, monitoring FENZ callouts, rainfall gauges, liaising with Healthy Waters and council's call centre Saturday 19 April, 12.42am: AEM issued its first weather warning to Aucklanders through social media. Saturday 19 April, 1.35am: Maggs messaged the stakeholders group advising that the Incident Management Team is being activated due to the intense thunderstorms hitting the Mount Roskill area, and that they're looking to open a shelter there for community members. Saturday 19 April, 4.08am: Maggs messaged the stakeholders group to advise that a Civil Defence Centre will be opened in Three Kings around 4.30am. The Emergency Response Coordination Centre was activated to monitor and coordinate with FENZ. What are Auckland Council's own systems for monitoring rain levels? The council has 72 telemetred rain gauges across the city. When a significant volume of rainfall is reached, automated alerts are sent to the relevant teams. Healthy Waters, which has the lowest threshold for an alert to be triggered, is the earliest to be alerted. Healthy Waters gets alerted when rain reaches 15mm/hour Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) is alerted when rain reaches 25mm/hour The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is alerted when rain reaches 35mm/hour Meanwhile, there are also 168 hotspot sites that the council knows to be prone to flooding - 51 of those sites have remote cameras that can be monitored 24/7. Healthy Waters' operations team manager for central, Phillip Johansen, said multiple rain gauges were triggered on the Friday night of the Easter storm. The first alert received by Healthy Waters was at 10:29pm on 18 April. Alerts continued to be generated and sent through to the early hours of the morning of 19 April. Johansen said an on-call duty manager for Healthy Waters was getting alerts and monitoring the situation, and they first made contact with AEM between 1 and 2am. When asked why Healthy Waters didn't alert AEM when it received its first alert at 10.29pm, Johansen said their team alert AEM when dwellings begin to get flooded, but don't see it necessary to talk to AEM when some some catchments get blocked at a rain level of 15mm/hour. Vigar said up until midnight, less than 20mm of rain fell, and it wasn't until midnight that the rain intensity ramped up. Councillor Shane Henderson: Councils need to diversify their sources of information relating to weather, rather than rely on MetService When RNZ shared Auckland City Councillor Shane Henderson the different rain-level thresholds for triggering automated alerts via rain gauges, he said he feels there needs to be a conversation around these "trigger points" and where improvements can be made. Henderson said he thought the response to the storm largely went okay, but he had concerns about the issue of communication and warning to the public - including the reliance on MetService to trigger alerts to the public during weather events. "I'm a bit concerned about that point where we're relying on metservice to make those calls before rolling things out, I just encourage us to look at that," he said. Henderson said there needed to be a nation-wide conversation around how councils could diversify the information they rely on during the lead up to potential severe weather events. Henderson was one of the first councillors to publicly raise concern about why weather warnings weren't issued earlier. Speaking to RNZ this week, Henderson said his main criticism was directed at MetService's delayed warning. He said he believed council's emergency management had done a "fantastic job" and was a stark contrast to the handling of Cyclone Gabrielle - "I think we've shown some clear improvement," he said. When RNZ approached Auckland Council for comment on Henderson's calls, Maggs responded in a statement that the national CDEM plan - a statutory document - specifies MetService as the agency who maintains a weather forecasting service, issues weather warnings to the public, and contributes to the management of public information about weather hazards and associated emergencies. Maggs said MetService is responsible for providing scientific advice to the National Crisis Management Centre, agencies and civil defence groups. He added that it's also critical that the public act on the natural warning signs of flooding. "If someone encounters rising floodwaters, they should not wait for a warning or alert but evacuate to higher ground immediately. People should also never drive, walk or swim through floodwaters," he said. RNZ had also asked council whether it would consider giving more weight to Healthy Waters' alerts for heavy rainfall and its own rain gauge monitoring system, to trigger council's communication with the public about potential severe weather. Council's director of resilience and infrastructure Barry Potter said in a statement that AEM had responded appropriately to the Easter storm, drawing on a complex feed of weather reports, rainfall data and network information. "The wellbeing of Aucklanders is utmost in our planning and response, and we continue to optimise our processes, working closely with our response partners in readiness for future events," he said.
NZ Herald
08-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Weather: MetService warnings and watches as heavy rain set to batter NZ, Northland faces thunderstorms, Banks Peninsula in state of emergency
'We also know that rain may impact the slip at Lighthouse Rd.' Monitoring equipment would enable the council to make more informed decisions for residents in the primary and secondary evacuation zones, White said. Meanwhile, it will be a sodden commute for Aucklanders heading to work today. A heavy rain watch is in place from 6am for 12 hours, with possible thunderstorms throughout the day. MetService forecaster Mmathapelo Makgabutlane told the Herald 'the wettest of that rain looks like it's more like mid-morning to the middle of the day, maybe into early afternoon' for Auckland. 'Rainfall amounts may approach warning criteria and possibly exceed them about isolated areas, especially in localised downpours,' MetService reported on its website. Makgabutlane said today 'looks like a pretty wet day for many parts of the North Island. I'd say as the day goes on, things become wetter'. 'Thunderstorms look possible, especially for places like Northland, and then down the western part of the South Island as well, especially in the morning,' she said. 'The main thing to highlight is the possibility of downpours, those short periods where the rainfall becomes quite intense and dumps quite a lot of rain in a very short space of time.' This could cause surface flooding, Makgabutlane said. The state of emergency for Banks Peninsula will be reassessed on Saturday. Heavy orange rain warnings across NZ MetService is encouraging people to keep a close eye on the forecast as things develop. The following severe weather alerts have been issued for the next 24-36 hours: Northland. 3am-5pm Friday. Northland could expect up to 150mm of rain in localised areas, especially in downpours and possible thunderstorms. A severe thunderstorm watch is also in force for the region. Bay of Plenty about and east of Whakatāne and Gisborne/Tairāwhiti north of Ruatoria. 3pm Friday to 3am Saturday. Expect 100-140mm of rain, mainly about the ranges. Tongariro National Park. 8am-8pm Friday. Expect 80-120mm of rain. Mount Taranaki/Taranaki Maunga. Midnight Thursday to 3pm Friday. Expect 150-250mm of rain. Westland District ranges. 9am Thursday to 6am Friday. Expect 140-180mm of rain in addition to what has already fallen. Headwaters of South Canterbury lakes and rivers. 10pm Thursday to 7am Friday. Expect 100-130mm of rain about the Main Divide and 70-100mm within 15km further east. Peak rates of 15-25mm/h are expected about the divide. Things set to clear for Mother's Day weekend Despite the unsettled end to the week, conditions are forecast to improve over the weekend with fine and mild weather expected across most of the country. Makgabutlane said this bad weather is 'looking fairly relatively short-lived, so by Saturday morning all this weather looks like it's cleared off the country and the weekend is looking pretty good'. MetService said Mother's Day is shaping up to be settled and sunny for most, though some regions may experience morning cloud or fog.
