The Invercargill City Council is lifting water restrictions – effective immediately, Water Manager Alister Murray confirmed today.

The Invercargill City Council earlier this week banned domestic outside water use because of extreme low flows in the Oreti River, and a drought was declared by MPI on Tuesday. However, steady rainfall over the last two days has caused river flows to rise to a level where the restrictions can be removed.

Mr Murray said that the lifting of water restrictions meant that residential households could return to normal water use.

“Restrictions may be reimposed in future, if river flows drop to low levels again. However, the imposition of restrictions, if required, is not expected for another 10 days or so.  ICC will continue to monitor the situation and will reintroduce restrictions, if required.”

Mr Murray thanked those people who had taken the restrictions seriously and modified their consumption to conserve water.

“It made a difference initially, but we noticed that in the following days the reduction in demand was not as much as we expected – especially over Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Should restrictions be reimposed, we hope to encourage people to make a more sustained effort to conserve water. It is a precious and essential resource and we need everyone to think about doing their bit to help the wider community,” Mr Murray said.