WELLINGTON’S WASTE OF WATER.
While exhibiting the “Venturi” water meter at Wainui yesterday, the City Engineer pointed out that though the average water consumption of the City throughout the day was between 130,000 and 140,000 gallons per hour, the consumption at night sometimes reached as much as 130,000 per hour. This was wasteful excess.
Water was wasted at night-time in Wellington to a greater extent than in any city of which he had heard. It had been discovered that one Newtown resident had six taps in his garden, of which he doubtless made ample use. Another source of waste was the public schools.
In one instance it had been noted that during January 236,000 gallons were registered by a meter that was in perfect order, yet that was a month of vacation. The Education Board was charged £50 a year for water for the whole of its schools in Wellington City, yet if the water was measured by meter the charge would be somewhere about £250 a year for one school on the figures for January.
The meter at Wainui shows that Wellington’s greatest consumption is between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. (when the factories commence work), during which period an average of about 150,000 gallons for the hour is maintained. There is invariably a drop shown by the meter at 8 a.m., when the Karori main is turned on, and a corresponding rise at 5 p.m., when that reservoir is switched off.
Upon these facts, especially those relating to public schools, it seems to us that the Corporation should bring these statistics before the Education Board, in order that steps may promptly be taken to prevent the excessive waste that is apparently going on.
