Duncan Garner: Out of control immigration to blame for Auckland's water shortage

OPINION: Aucklanders listen up - what the hell were you thinking?

You selfish, self-important big city bankers, too far up your own water pipes to care and stuck in your shower booth, oblivious to the warnings. 

Now it's time to go smelly for the sake of this water shortage in Auckland.

Limit your showers to four minutes. Hell, try having one every few days if you really want to help.

Truth is the residents of Auckland City are now to blame for ignoring the pleas.

We have plunged ourselves into a crisis.

The message itself from Watercare and Mayor Goff was full, frank and meaningless - actually overwhelmingly weak.

There was no ban on anything just a gentle prod to be mindful and careful. Well, fat lot of use that did.

And yes I was part of the irresponsible crowd. I thought about water as I watered a very dry front lawn, topped up the swimming pool after a bombing competition, and went past four minutes in the shower. But I know I'm not alone. 

Now Auckland may face official water restrictions. And here's the bit the PC mad officials won't tell you - we have filled Auckland city to the brim. Immigration is out of control.

The city's population has exploded and we have not kept up with critical infrastructure.

I wrote about this three years ago and I asked that we look into the future to see the frightening truth.

Well here it is - half a million more people over 10 years and stuff all new infrastructure to cope.

How many more dams have been built to store water? You got it - zip. 

The demand for tap water in Auckland has exploded. 

Today we will use 100 million litres more than we did on the same day 20 years ago. 

We should be asking our public officials why they didn't build new dams.

It's not like immigration has been a closely guarded secret.

Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.