Photo: 123rf
Watercare says it's been an incredibly dry month, as Aucklanders are being asked to cut back on long showers and car washes.
Dam levels dropped below a trigger point earlier this month, and with dry weather expected to last, Watercare has activated the city's drought plan.
Watercare chief operations officer Mark Bourne told Morning Report the rain over the past 24 hours came to just under 9 millimetres in the catchment.
He said to put that into perspective, there has been 33mm of rain so far this month, when normally it would be up around 130mm.
"So well shy of where we would normally be - it's incredibly dry out there."
Watercare needed to build awareness of the situation first before considering more stringent measures, Bourne said.
This might be shorter showers or reduced watering of the garden.
On a bigger scale, Watercare had a very large water treatment plant on the banks of the Waikato River and this supplied about one-third of Auckland's water supply.
"What we've been doing over the course of summer is increasing the production at the facility and reducing the production from the dam sources."
Commercial customers were also being asked to reduce the use of water.
"If everyone saves a little, collectively it can make a huge difference."
Bourne said Aucklanders should be aware there could be more serious restrictions to come.
Weather forecasts indicated April would also be dry.
"So if we continue the demands that we have at the moment and we get a very dry April and potentially it's dry into May then water levels could reduce further in the dams to the point where mandatory restrictions are required.
"So our preference is for everyone to voluntarily reduce consumption now."
Elsewhere around the North Island and the top of the South Island, lush farms are turning into deserts as drought conditions worsen and farmers struggle to grow grass.
A drought has been declared in the Northland, Waikato, Horizons, Marlborough-Tasman, and Taranaki regions - and there are fears about feed shortages as temperatures begin to drop.
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