Back in the height of a lovely, warm New Zealand summer, the governing body of my fine city suggested to us residents that we may want to look at curbing our water usage. They forewarned of a shortage rolling into the winter months if the rain insisted on staying away.
Spoiler alert!
We didn’t.
Well, we did, personally, however the vast majority of JAFAs (I’ll leave you to figure out that wee nugget) decided the council was over reaching. Trying to control us. Beat us into submission with calm and rational suggestions. Whatever works as an excuse no matter how stupid, was floated as reasoning for not following the directive. How very Auckland of us all.
Watercare, the council owned entity in charge of maintaining and operating our water systems kept looking at the numbers. They checked the storage dams, they waited for rain, they crossed fingers and toes they wouldn’t need to ask some of the most complaint-oriented residents in the country to do more, in an official capacity.
Then a virus surfaced overseas, maybe you’ve heard of it. Maybe you’ve been living under a rock (if you have somehow missed this all can you invite me to your rock? Seems like it would be nice there).
Watercare wanted to impose official restrictions, they held off. Suddenly excessive hand washing was in and saving water was out.
New Zealand saw our first case of COVID-19 on 28th February 2020, a person had returned from overseas two days earlier and developed symptoms after arrival. That was the beginning of the shittiest roller coaster ride that none of us asked to get on.
Just over three weeks later, Monday 23rd March, New Zealand was moved to Level 3 of our shiny new COVID-19 alert system.
This meant schools closed. All but essential services were asked to begin the shutdown process, the people were sent home and told not to mingle with others.
Social Distancing became the cool thing to do. Hand washing was all the rage.
Hand sanitiser sold out across the board. People stormed the supermarkets and bought up big.
At one point the army had to be brought in to control the crowds at one of our local supermarkets.
48 Hours later at 11.59pm Wednesday 25th March, Level 4 began. A nationwide lockdown.
If you didn’t have to leave the house for food, medical care or you are classed as an essential worker (healthcare, food production, distribution etc.), you were advised to stay home in your bubble. We could still walk and run in our local areas, but seeing friends was out, no takeaways, no restaurants, no espresso, no playgrounds and public toilets. Leaving your local area was a no-no.
Some people struggled more with this than others, including certain high-profile members of the government, but that’s a whole different story.
To the credit of the nation, most of us managed to just hunker down for our minimum four weeks of containment.
We ventured to the supermarket as little as possible. Stood in well-spaced lines, 2M apart from anyone around us. People were wearing masks, badly. Wearing gloves, badly. Throwing them on the ground in carparks and footpaths rather than stepping within a meter of a trash can.
It was an interesting time. My teenager was home for weeks. That didn’t mean we saw her more of course. School was online. It was an experience for sure.
Almost 5 weeks later, after a slight extension to our initial 4 weeks, New Zealand made the shift to Level 3 at 11:59pm Monday April 27th.
Some have likened this shift to “Level 4, but with KFC”. That sums it up pretty well really.
Level 3 saw fast food reopening in a non-contact way, cafes and restaurants were able to sell food and coffee again for non-contact pickup or delivery. We were allowed to move a bit more freely. Leaving your suburb was less of a no-no. Contact with people outside of your bubble was however still not permitted. Some more people went back to work. Schools opened for those who absolutely must attend due to no care available in the home. For the most part in our home, nothing changed. Our essential worker kept working, we kept staying home.
Two and a half weeks later, Level 2 began. That was last Thursday, 14th May.
Level 2 is almost normal life, with some exceptions. School started back today, Monday 18th May.
I’m no longer allowed to enter the grounds of either of the schools my children attend without being summoned by the staff. Finish times are being staggered across year levels for my youngest. My oldest can probably kiss catching the bus goodbye for the rest of the year due to reduced capacity to ensure something that vaguely resembles distancing. Pretty much everyone has returned to work in some capacity, although plenty still seem to be working from home to maintain space in offices.
To make contact tracing easier businesses and employers have started to take details of all who are entering should there be another unexpected outbreak as we open ourselves back up.
My teenager left the house on Thursday lunchtime to see her best friend. She didn’t come back till Sunday, back to normal for her.
I have seen one friend, and my mum. It felt odd, having people in my house after just waving at the postie through the window for so long.
But it felt normal, which is a nice change of pace from the disconnected reality we have been living.
With Level 2, came official water restrictions for Auckland. These kicked in this past Saturday, 16th May.
As I mentioned earlier, Aucklanders love a good complaint. We complain about the weather. We complain about the government. We complain that the rest of the country is so against paying for our new roads that we need a fuel tax to cover the bill (shock horror!). We complain when we receive funding. We complain when we don’t. We complain about the cleanliness of our beaches, and then we complain that the trash cans are ugly when council installs them.
Basically, if something exists, an Aucklander will find a way to complain about it.
I was born and raised in this city; I’ve been watching my whole life. I’m not an outsider making assumptions. This is how we are. We can’t help it. People keep telling us we are the biggest city with the most people and really it just goes to our heads.
Level 1 water restrictions for Auckland basically boil down to no outdoor water use. No hose. No water blaster. No sprinklers.
It’s not very complex, but from hearing my fellow JAFAs harp on about it for the last few days you would think they had all been asked to provide the blood of a newborn under a waxing moon in sacrifice to the gods.
Watercare also made some further suggestions. Shorter showers. No baths, if you do have a bath, share the water with a second person. Catch water in a bucket while the shower is heating up. Save washing machine water for watering plants, cleaning pathways.
These are all sensible suggestions, designed to ensure that if this obscenely dry weather continues, we will have enough drinking water for the summer.
The point most people still seem to be missing.
At this point in the year our average storage of water usually sits around 70% capacity, that’s before the winter storms that us Aucklanders love to complain about.
This year, with continued drought conditions, we are currently sitting on around 44%.
We can pull from the Waikato river, but only up to one third of our total needs. An application has been sitting in line for us to draw a larger amount, but there will always be a limit. Auckland is not the only area that utilises the Waikato for its water.
As the levels in our dams drop ever lower, the water becomes harder to treat. The system struggles to keep up with demand. Aucklanders complain the water smells of chlorine.
If we can all just lay off with the taps, we can carry ourselves through to the rain arriving without further restrictions. I think we would all like that.
If we don’t, and this winter is not the big wet we are all hoping for, then we will face far more serious repercussions come next summer. Winter is when our lakes and dams get the top up needed to keep us going when we don’t see any rain. It has been decades since we have been this dry, for this long. No-one really saw it coming.
Apart from everyone who has been talking about climate change all this time of course, but that’s not real is it? *sarcasm*
Keep washing your hands, that goes without saying. This virus is still a thing for now.
But turn the tap off, save some water. Spend less time bitching and more time helping.
This year has been a shitshow so far.
But I’m glad for the water restrictions so us JAFAs can get in some good complaining.
It feels just like normal.
Welcome back to reality.
-Bee
The Benedict Post 