Tamworth Regional Council hopes the introduction of tough new “no-hoses-or-sprinklers” rules will cut our daily water use by up to 25 per cent and delay even tougher water rules likely from late January.
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The buckets-only outdoor watering rules come into effect on Saturday in the Tamworth area and the council’s water director Bruce Logan hopes it will slash our daily consumption from about 22 megalitres to about 15 megalitres.
If it doesn’t, Mr Logan warned, Tamworth faces no outdoor watering at all – unless it’s with recycled water – in the midst of summer.
The new water rules come as the council prepares to ask the top 50 water users in Tamworth to immediately look at how they can conserve supplies by becoming more water-efficient.
Tamworth’s water restrictions from this weekend will be the strictest since August 2007, but this time around the city is looking down the barrel of a big dry summer coming up and only buckets to use outside for town water supply users.
The level three restrictions were triggered this week when Chaffey Dam dropped to 35 per cent of capacity.
It means all hoses and sprinklers are banned completely, buckets can only be used to water outdoors between 6pm and 8pm unless there’s recycled systems in place, and backyard pools can only be topped up with buckets, too.
Mr Logan said daily consumption had been at about 0.2 per cent over a long, hot dry spell lately but he hoped to see that drop back to about 0.1 per cent from Saturday.
“We need to reduce consumption so we can reduce the rate of fall of Chaffey,” he said.
“If we can, then I estimate that we will see at least 50 days from the Level 3 point and when we get to the Level 4 trigger.”
Mr Logan said Chaffey was basically only supplying the Tamworth city now, except for a couple of high-security users whose allocations were negligible.
This meant the drop in the dam level was almost completely be-cause of what was fed down the Peel, as well as evaporation.
“We can’t stop the evaporation, so we need to reduce the amount of what we order,” he said.
He wants the consumption figure to drop to 15 per cent to give the city more breathing space for having at least some outdoor watering, even if it is with buckets.
However, Mr Logan has warned that if consumption doesn’t decrease by some 25 per cent, then we face earlier, harsher water rules in the middle of what might be a long, hot and dry summer.
The new trigger points will also see the council stop watering almost half of its parks and other green spaces.
From Saturday, only 95 green areas will continue to receive some watering, although a lot of them are supplemented by bore supplies, too.
Under those rules, the botanic garden, pools, sporting fields, major recreation parks, roundabouts, medians and lawn cemetery will be the only ones watered, but on a reduced roster.
The major commercial, industrial and institutional users of town water will also be asked to do their bit – and quickly.
Among them are abattoirs and food processors, shopping centres, retirement and aged care institutions, hospitals, schools, and motels and hotels.
Mr Logan said previous water analysis suggested that while many believed industry to be a huge consumer of water, outdoor use on gardens and lawns was the biggest soaker of water supply.
“In normal times, we reckon our industrial consumption is about 12 megalitres a day and the rest is residential,” Mr Logan said.
“At the moment, we are assuming people will do the right thing and that over the next two weeks our residential demand will drop considerably.
“I hope so, anyway.”
Mr Logan said he hoped we didn’t get to Level 5 water restrictions, but the council’s data suggested that with Chaffey Dam at only 25 per cent – the trigger level for those restrictions – the city had about two years’ supply left.
Unless it rained.