Some farmers with consents for irrigation on pasture from bores in the Awanui and Mangere catchments have been required to cease because of low water tables.
Far North District Council has notified level 3 restrictions on people who draw water from the Kaitaia, Kaikohe, Kawakawa-Moerewa and Opononi-Omapere schemes.
Garden and lawn watering are banned along with swimming pool filling vehicle washing and house or paved area washing.
Infrastructure and asset management general manager Andy Finch has asked all Far North residents to reduce water use by 25%.
That would delay the imposition of more stringent restrictions and might avoid the worst-case scenario of an interruption to treated water supplies, he said.
A week earlier Kaipara District Council published a level 3 notice for Dargaville and nearby Baylys Beach to manage pressure on the local supply.
It suggested Maungaturoto would be the next town to be restricted, an eventuality for which Fonterra bought a lake about 10km from its processing plant.
Whangarei District Council has not imposed restrictions and its two main storage dams, Wilson’s and Whau Valley, are at 75% and 81% capacity.
Northland Regional Council regulatory services manager Colin Dall said information on low river levels and water tables is being shared with the Government.
He was responding to some speculation an adverse weather event might be declared, saying that is not the counil’s call.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited the region on Friday to see for himself and hear the positions of farmers and growers.
The Rural Support Trust has called a committee meeting for this week but has not made an application for an adverse event declaration.
Trust co-ordinator Julie Jonker said the region is in a hydrological drought, with very low water levels affecting vegetable and fruit growers but not so much livestock owners, who have conserved fodder.
The NIWA Drought Index shows the whole of Northland and Auckland provinces and north Waikato extremely dry.
There are also patches of drought around the east coast from Whangarei to Matakana, Great Barrier and Waiheke Islands and the Miranda area on the Firth of Thames.
Northland’s hydrology team is gauging some of the more critical rivers in the region to ensure it has the most up-to-date data and figures to work with.
“Preliminary information suggests a number of rivers are already below minimum flow levels and though this isn’t unusual over a dry summer this wouldn’t usually happen until February or March and is linked to last year’s drier conditions,” Dall said.
Last year was one of the driest on record in Northland, going back over a century.
Puhipuhi, north of Whangarei, got 1100mm compared with its 2000mm average and that was the second driest since 1914.
Kaitaia received the lowest rainfall since records began in 1949, being only 58% of average.
Kerikeri had its third lowest on record since 1943.
