Water rationing introduced as Port Moresby copes with drought

Transcript

Strict water rationing has been introduced in Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby, as the city's water supply tries to cope with a severe dry spell.  

Much of the country is in the grip of a drought brought on by this year's severe El Niño weather system.

Paul Gore, the general manager of operations at the city's water supplier, Eda Ranu, says the Sirinumu dam is at only 35 percent capacity, and little heavy rain is expected for months.

He told Jamie Tahana drastic measures are needed, and people need to cut down on their water use.

PAUL GORE: There's been no rain since April right up to November. There has been some predictions that there will be some rain in December, but now we are in the second week of the month and there has been no rain at all. Our dam, which has a capacity of about 340 million cubic metres, has now depleted by about 65 percent and we currently have about a 35 percent, or 116 million cubic metres at the moment.

JAMIE TAHANA: You've brought in water rationing. So how does that work?

PG: What we are doing is to at least reduce the production levels and then there will be sufficient water...well, not sufficient, but we want to maintain the level at the dam to extend the period. You know, with the current level, we have about seven to eight months, but we want to extend it further to about ten or twelve months if there is no rain in December, January, February, and then going towards April we are heading towards a dry season again.  

JT: OK so you're hoping to get another ten months of life out of this dam?

PG: That's the idea, the idea is to actually hold our current water levels there just to maintain for the consumption only right up until the next eight or ten months, yes.

JT: And so how do the rations work?

PG: OK what we are doing is we have asked them to actually, you know, for commercial properties and big industrial production plants, they at least have a bore water plant in their yards so they can use that one. But for others, we actually ask them to store water during the period that they receive their water supply and then those hours that the water is off they can resort to using the water they have in their containers and so forth.

JT: OK so you're actually shutting off water supply for certain hours of the day are you?

PG: Yes, actually, it's a six hour interval. So some sections of the city will receive water for six hours and then we will cut them off for another six hours, and then they will receive it for another six hours  and then cut it off for another six hours and then repeat the 24-hour cycle.

JT: It's only been going for a week but are you starting to see that it's working?

PG: Yes, as far as our production is concerned, you know, we produce about 170 million litres a day. Now, it's down to about 140 million litres a day so we are saving about at least 30 a day.

JT: If this rainfall doesn't come until next April and the situation worsens, could the rationing be tightened or something?

PG: Yes. At the moment we are actually starting off we are actually being flexible to the industrial areas now. We have changed our attitude to allow them 18-hours of water, so as we progress December and towards April, if there's no rain there will be more stricter controls.