The Town of Niverville continues to ask residents to be conservative with their water consumption as they wait for their new well bank.

Mayor Myron Dyck says the provincial government recently announced $1.25 Million in funding as part of a 50/50 cost sharing plan between the province and the Town of Niverville. He says the Niverville is now waiting for their environmental license, which they hope to receive sometime in the next 90 days.

"At such a time that we officially get our environmental license, we could start tendering for the project with the hopes that this would then be done through the late fall and winter months for completion by next year so that we won't have the same consumption limitations on us next year."

Dyck says their public works department recently informed the town of a rise in water consumption with this recent dry spell. He notes Niverville's water treatment plant uses a reverse osmosis system, and though their wells can handle higher volume than they use, more volume means more sediment issues.

"We could choose to turn up the pumps. What that would do is give us more flow but what would happen is that the sediment stirs in the aquifer below and that causes our filters to get plugged and gummed up a lot quicker and that is a fairly costly fix to have to either clean or replace."

Dyck notes the town sent out a reminder to residents asking them to only water their lawns and gardens on alternate days depending if their house has an odd or even civil address. He says residents of Niverville have are good at buying into water conservation.

"People aren't necessarily aware on a week by week or even a month by month basis but we have had a dry spell here now so people are trying to be conscientious but lawns and flower gardens and vegetable gardens are in need of water and so people are trying to do that and we just want to make sure we remain conscientious of our consumption levels."

Dyck says even when the new water source is up and running and there is no longer a need to use a lower volume of water, they still want to be environmentally conscious and be good stewards of their resources.