LEVEL one restrictions have not stemmed local water use at all and the council could consider reviewing its drought management plan.
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It has been one week since Tamworth Regional Council enforced restrictions and the city continues to guzzle water at an alarming rate.
Water director Bruce Logan said the city has been consuming 40 megalitres a day since restrictions came into effect; almost double the desired rate of 20 to 25 megalitres a day.
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Chaffey Dam was listed at 36.8 per cent capacity on Monday, which is less than 2 per cent away from the trigger-point for the council’s more austere restrictions.
“At that rate, we will be at 35 per cent, which is the trigger for level two in possibly two to three weeks,” Mr Logan said.
The water director said the last review of the drought management plan in 2015 saw the stimulus for restrictions set at a more conservative level, more than 10,000 megalitres higher than the previous benchmark.
However, Mr Logan suggested the plan could be re-evaluated in the near future.
“We will review the drought management plan after this drought has gone,” he said.
“I'm fairly confident after the last review, we had a look at the response from the consumers and the dam levels and we did change level one restrictions in Tamworth.
“I am confident with those changes in the drought management plan we have got in place will get us through this drought.”
Mr Logan hit out at claims the influx of country music campers and visitors was driving up water use and said it was people watering their lawns putting the biggest drain on supplies.
“We don’t see a significant increase in our water consumption during festival and the basic reason is, in January when it is hot, all of our consumption is due to people watering their lawns and festival-goers don’t have lawns,” he said.
Council water sustainability officer Ian Lobban said there was a large “swathe of green lawn” in Tamworth presently and there were more conservative options which could be explored.
Once level two is introduced, fixed sprinkler use will be banned and hand-held hoses will be permitted between 6pm and 8pm each night.
The lawns might be lush but the council hasn’t dished out any restriction-related fines yet, only a handful of warnings.
The council issues two written warnings before resorting to fines and flow-restricting devices on houses.
While water use might seem extravagant now, Mr Lobban said consumption naturally drops when the hotter months pass. He agreed there could be a need to review the drought management plan.
“We have a couple of months of hot weather and then it naturally drops,” Mr Lobban said.
“But we're fairly confident the drought management plan is doing the job at the moment.
“After this drought, we will go back to reviewing the drought management plan.”
Tamworth, along with Moonbi and Kootingal, might be wading into more wearing water measures; the villages are already in some very “onerous” times.
Manilla and Nundle are on level three restrictions with Bendemeer also on level one.
Barraba and Attunga are still on permanent water conversation measures, the lowest level the council can recommend.