Auckland Council's emergency committee will today consider introducing mandatory water restrictions due to the drought.
Mayor Phil Goff said Auckland was experiencing its worst drought on record Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Recent rainfall has done little to improve the significant water shortage caused by the region's months-long dry period.
Mayor Phil Goff said Auckland was experiencing its worst drought on record, with January to April this year the driest in the city's history.
"We have had a long hot summer with less than half of our normal rainfall, which means our storage dams have fallen to around 46.5 percent, well below the 76 percent average for this time of year," he said.
"For some months, Watercare, with Auckland Council backing, has run a campaign around the need to conserve water. We now need to reinforce that message with mandatory restrictions, which is what the Emergency Committee is considering today."
If agreed by councillors at today's committee, the mandatory restrictions will come into force on Saturday 16 May.
Watercare has previously said that if it wasn't for the Covid-19 crisis it would have introduced such restrictions some time ago.
The first stage of restrictions would see the banning of outdoor hoses or water blasters unless for health, safety, emergency or biosecurity reasons, banning commercial car washes unless they use recycled water and restricting the watering of sports fields, plants and paddocks.
The second stage would see a ban on watering sports fields.
Goff said steps were also being taken to increase the supply of water, including using more water from the Waikato River and utilising acquifers, bores and a currently unused storage dam.
"Longer term, major changes to increase our water supply resilience in the face of the impact of climate change will be necessary.
"These include consent to draw much more water from the Waikato, measures to incentivise use of roof rainwater for gardens, consideration of upgrading water from the Māngere treatment plant to a potable standard, desalination and reducing water loss through leakage.
