The Invercargill City Council (ICC) is forecasting it may have to introduce hosing and sprinkler restrictions to the city and Bluff as early as next week (30 Jan), if the flow of its only water source - the Ōreti River, continues to drop.

The ICC is required under its Environment Southland water permit, to apply conservation measures according to the river’s flow.

As of today (26 Jan), the Ōreti River flow at Riverton Highway Bridge was 5.87 cubic metres per second (cumecs).

However should this flow reduce to 4 cumecs or below then initial conservation measures would be introduced.

ICC Group Manager Infrastructure Erin Moogan said all domestic unattended hosing and sprinklers would be prohibited when the first trigger point was reached, which could happen as early as next week.

This means hand-held watering of gardens and no sprinkler use.

The second trigger point (3.2 cumecs) activates the prohibition of all domestic outside use of water, such as washing cars and watering gardens, Moogan said.

“The second trigger can be quite soon after the first so people should be prepared.”

Although rain is forecast, the overall outlook for February is for dry conditions to continue.

“Forecast rain may alleviate this in the short-term, but restrictions are becoming increasingly likely.”

It is important that the council follows the measures set by Environment Southland in order to protect the Ōreti River system, she said.