New Zealand loses more than 101 billion litres of water per year due to leaks and wastage however water metres have been shown to reduce this significantly and is looking to be heavily installed in Picton in order to solve water shortages.
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Water metres measure the volume of water being used by a residential or commercial building unit, allowing for the identification of water wastage or leaks. Water metres have been installed in rural Marlborough towns, such as Renwick and Havelock, to reduce water usage. The Marlborough District Council plans to install them earlier than planned in Picton as the town recovers from a dry spell and water restrictions.
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Data shows that in Renwick residential water usage went down 51%, and reticulation leakage down 70% after metres were installed. Additionally a town in Marlborough found that due to water metres that they were saving 50% more water. Another example of how these water metres allowed the council to identify leaks is how one property in Havelock was found to be using 33,000 litres of water a day, while another was going through 28,000 litres of water a day.
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Picton’s water restrictions were lifted on March 20th and in order to keep it that way they are introducing water metres to reduce the communities water usage so that they do not face these restrictions next summer.
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