From the Mayor
On Monday 24th February we had a power cut in the South Wairarapa. In itself, this isn’t a totally unusual event, but the cause has sent a warning to me about the state of our power network, run by Powerco.
Apart from alerting us to the need for more back-up generators, and the vulnerability of various networks when power disappears, my concern is the ability of a stray magpie to effectively shut down a district. This should not have happened. In the interest of all residents, I will be asking Powerco to clearly describe how robust our network is should two magpies appear on the horizon.
On other matters, we have had a number of questions asked about water, and tankers in particular.
Tankers have permits to use tobies to draw water from town supply. They pay for this service. During water restrictions, they can only take for supply of domestic tanks, where water is necessary for health and wellbeing.
Tankers can also draw from the river, as long as they draw less than 20,000 litres per day at less than 2.5 litres/second. I have asked the GWRC to check whether this is appropriate during low water levels.
Also, irrigation surrounding the towns does not affect the supply of treated drinking water to any material extent. I know it looks odd with restrictions in towns, but irrigators use aquifers and untreated water, and are consented through the GWRC again.
As an update on Martinborough water, we are looking good with the commissioning of the manganese filter during autumn, and thus the securing of drinking water for the medium term. Response to restrictions has been excellent, and led to us being the only region allowing alternate hand watering. Thank you.
Cheers, Mayor Alex
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