Water use in Omokoroa, Te Puna and Minden continues to soar putting the area on the brink of restrictions.

Unless water use drops immediately in these areas Western Bay of Plenty District Council will be imposing restrictions from Saturday, February 1.

Council's Utilities Manager Kelvin Hill says water consumption has almost reached its peak, giving Council no option but to put restrictions in place.

A decision will be made on Friday.

Reservoirs in the Western Zone (Waihi Beach and Katikati) and Central Zone (Omokoroa, Te Puna and Minden) must maintain a constant 50 percent minimum water level to meet the daily demands for drinking water.

Reservoirs in the Eastern and Western water zones are still holding their own, says Kelvin.

He thanks people for the efforts they are making to conserve use – and urges them to keep up the good work.

Council is closely monitoring all its reservoirs in the three water zone catchments, but with no substantial rain in sight for the rest of this month and into early February, the whole District is on now high alert to conserve.

'We appreciate that many of our residents are already doing their bit to conserve water – but we need even greater efforts if we are going to avoid bringing in restrictions,” says Kelvin.

'If demand from residents in Omokoroa, Te Puna and Minden doesn't reduce this week – our next step would be to ban sprinklers (hand-held hosing only) and introduce water restrictions for odd-numbered houses on odd days and even-numbered houses on even days.”

Council will also be directly contacting its larger water consumers in the Central Zone to ask them to be more prudent on use.

Council has not introduced water restrictions since 2013 which, says Kelvin, has been achieved by residents responding to calls to conserve consumption and understanding the importance of water over the summer period.

For more information on how to conserve water visit: https://www.westernbay.govt.nz/transportation-roads-and-water/water/water-conservation