On 03 March 2022 we had turf laid at the rental property we own. It must be watered daily. That water comes from a roughly 9,000 litre rainwater tank that also feeds the toilet in the house. Otherwise the house uses a metered town water supply.
A week on and the underground tank under the front lawn ran dry! It’s been hot and dry, with not even a skerrick of rain to help refill the tank or water the grass.
The town supply is supposed to refill the tank when the level drops too low, but what we didn’t know was the refill is a trickle that carries about as much water as a badly leaking kitchen tap! The plumber we consulted advised it could take a few days before there was enough water to flush the toilet.
All of that information was painstakingly unearthed as it wasn’t available in the original house purchase documents (we knew the tank existed and that it supplied the toilet, but that was all).
Today our local water supply guy, Reggie, who lives at Waikawa Beach, came with 10,000 litres in his tanker and filled the tank for us. It took about 8,500 litres. I wonder if that’ll last more than a week?
I couldn’t even see how to access the tank under its concrete inspection cover. Reggie had me lever a claw hammer under one of two pins until the edge of the lid was high enough for him to get his fingers under it and lift it out. Thank goodness he knew how things like that work!
We are due for a little rain this week. I hope it’s enough to water the grass enough and also to top up the tank.
This turf is turning out to be very expensive, with the cost of laying it and then our daily trips to hand water the tiny area not covered by the two sprinklers on a timer, and now 9,000 litres of water delivered.
