Water levels in Auckland dams have nudged over 60 per cent capacity, the highest since February.
The region’s population has been closely watching personal water consumption for more than a year now after the worst drought in history early last year with below average rainfall following a very dry 2019.
In May 2020, storage in the Hunua Ranges and Waitakere Ranges dams were at 44.5 per cent, more than 30 per cent below usual levels.
Auckland had to rely on taking more water from the Waikato River pipeline and imposing restrictions to minimise water usage.
Yesterday, Watercare reported 11.5mm had fallen in the Hunua Ranges on Sunday (45mm in the past seven days) with 9.5mm falling in the Waitākere Ranges (46.5mm in past seven days).
Dam storage levels yesterday hit 61.28 per cent compared to the normal 85.5 per cent for this time of year.
Watercare improvements programme manager, Anin Nama told the Times the last time we were at a similar level was towards the end of February 2021 (58.78 per cent).
“This is standard for the yearly water cycle; we expect the dams to draw down over late summer to autumn and then start to replenish over winter and into spring, which is what we’re experiencing now,” said Nama.
This is helped by the addition of the new sources we’ve been able to bring on, like our Waikato 50 water treatment plant and the Pukekohe Aquifer. The extent of the dams’ recovery will also depend on the rainfall that we experience over the next few months.”
Nama said forecasts suggest they’re likely to receive normal to drier-than-normal conditions over August.
Meanwhile water consumption in Auckland is well below target with Sunday’s water consumption at 377 million litres (seven day rolling average 393m litres). The target for August is 410m litres or less a day.
