Photo: 123rf
Water restrictions are being enforced in the Queenstown Lakes after significant and sustained demand this month.
Queenstown Lakes District Council has introduced level 1 restrictions around Lake Hayes which requires hand-held hosing to be kept to a minimum and limits irrigation sprinklers use to between midnight and 6am.
The council's infrastructure operations manager, Simon Mason, said the area's water take limits had been consistently breached throughout February.
"Water is being drawn from the Lake Hayes bore at an unsustainable rate and beyond what we're allowed to take," Mason said.
The council urged the community to conserve water as much as possible, saying the restrictions would be removed once the demand was more sustainable.
The restrictions would affect properties including Bendemeer, Threepwood, Slopehill Road, and Arrowtown-Lake Hayes Road, but did not apply to those in the Lake Hayes Estate and Shotover Country.
However, the council encouraged all of its residents and visitors to help to save water.
Reservoir levels were being monitored throughout the district as the warm dry summer had led to high water use across the council's network.
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