Demand for water will exceed supply in the Western Bay of Plenty sometime in the next 40 years – if things carry on as they are.
That was the message Environment BOP senior planner Elva Conroy took to the Tauranga City Council's strategy and policy committee this week.

The regional council is in the process of developing a water sustainability strategy; a SmartGrowth action aimed at assessing how EBOP allocates and manages water in the long term. It's being prepared in conjunction with Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District Councils.
For the greater Tauranga urban area, water use will exceed current supply from ground aquifers.
The planners anticipate annual domestic water demand will increase from 15 million cubic metres in 2005 to 36 million cumecs by 2055; that's about 36 million bath tubs worth of water.
Water required for horticulture is also expected to double from about seven millon cumecs in 2005 to an estimated 12 million cumecs in 2055.

Developing the strategy is intended to coordinate the approach to allocating groundwater supplies, looking at and assessing future problems now, says Elva.
She is also meeting with stakeholders including dairy farmers and Horticulture NZ to define issues and challenges. She hopes to produce a strategy by the end of the year.
'The previous government did quite a bit of work on water allocation and was about to produce a national policy statement,” says Elva.
'There's a new process being led by the present government dealing with water allocation nationally. It is a big deal from their point of view.”
She wasn't able to answer questions about possible privatisation of water supplies, nor was she able to give an answer to Bill Faulkner's question about whether the strategy will recognise how the increasing cost of supplying water will impact on sustainability.
Elva also made a note and promised to get back on a question about the connection between water requirement and land use changes; as affects South Island farming districts undergoing dairy conversions.