Water Information Services (Metering)Ratonga Pārongo Wai (Inenga)

Water Information Services (Metering)

Water Information Services began in 2009 to help consent holders comply with the new Water Regulations that started from November 2010. If your consented rate of take is 5 litres a second or more, a water meter has to be installed and records of water used sent to the Regional Council.

Water Information Services employs two staff -  Pauline Campbell as Technical Analyst, and Jo Rodgers as Resource Analyst (WIS). Find out more about the team.

Why measure your water?

Increasing demand for water by agriculture, industry, urban users, and for recreation makes proper management and conservation of water supplies more and more important.  Proper management of water use means understanding how much water irrigation systems use. Properly selected and maintained water meters can be the easiest and most accurate way to measure water flow.

Measuring your water use can help you to -

1. Improve irrigation water use efficiency by accurately measuring how much water is applied
2. Determine pumping efficiency, so water is supplied as inexpensively as possible
3. Detect potential well, pump or irrigation system problems
4. Identify if you are complying with your consent conditions.
5. Prepare your GAP reports.
6. When selling your property.

the Regional Council uses water-use data to -

1. Keep track of and make efficient use of water allocation
2. Monitor compliance with consent conditions
3. Understand water resources and ecosystem responses to pumping
4. Plan for future economic growth of communities in a sustainable way.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my telemetry is working?

Most telemetry companies have a website where you can log in to see your wateruse. It is a good idea to log in and have a look as you can see if you are complying with your consent conditions for your rate and volumes. Many of the companies will also have additional information such as battery life.

If your telemetry provider does not have a website you can use the council’s website to look at your water use, but as the data only comes in once a day, this can be nearly 24 hours behind. The council’s website shows the total for your consent, and does not split out the data if you have more than one bore.

Will my telemetry company tell me if the telemetry stops working?

Not always. Sometimes your telemetry can seem to be working but the connection between the meter and the telemetry is not working, and the telemetry is reporting zeroes. The telemetry company does not know if you are using water or not so do not know “the horse, cow sheep” has eaten through the wire.

The telemetry company will get an Alarm from the council if the telemetry is not coming through at all. They prefer that you notify them so that if something needs fixing or replacing they know who will be paying.

I have put in the wrong reading or date in the website

You cannot change data that you have already entered and saved on the website. If you have made a mistake, you need to contact the council. You can either use the website ‘Contact us’ or you can ring Water Information and ask for the data to be changed.

Do I need different logins for different consent?

Your log in set up is personal to you so you can have as many consents as you like loaded on. You may have your own consent and consents for where you work and they can all be loaded on to the web login.

I am leasing my property and need to know if the lessee is reporting water use

You can register for the council’s website and we can set you up with a ‘Read Only’ version so that you can go online and check whether the lessee is reporting as required. As the holder of the consent, the water use reporting is ultimately your responsibility.

I am no good with computers - is there any other way to report my readings?

You can ring Jo Rodgers on 06 835 9200 and she can make you watertake forms that you can fill in and email to her, or you can print off, fill in and then fax or post to the council.

I have an irrigation consent and a frost consent for the same well and the frost consent says daily readings - do I have to enter the data twice?

No. You enter the daily readings on the irrigation consent. Then, when you have a frost, you enter the date, time and meter readings when you started and finished frost protection. This is the only time you need to put readings against the frost consent.

I am not using my well to irrigate and won’t be for several years - do I still have to supply water meter readings?

If you contact one of approved installers and have your well Tamper Tagged, you can stop taking water meter readings and we will make your consent as non-exercised. If you need to start irrigating again you need to contact us about cutting the tag, and starting to report readings again.

I lease my land and the lessee has a portable pump - is there anything more I have to do?

You need to check with your lessee that they have telemetry and GPS attached to the portable pump. The council also need to know the property is leased so that the portable pump can be set up with your consent. If you are unsure about the lessee’s pump, please get in touch with us, as we have details about which pumps have been set up correctly.