LEVEL three water restrictions will be in effect from Monday as the council rolls-out a new measure under the stricter guidelines.
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Residents will now be able to use a handheld hose for 15 minutes during a two hour window between 6pm and 8pm.
This complements the old measure of unlimited watering via buckets and does away with the need for people to seek exemptions.
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While the council's water sustainability officer Ian Lobban said it should be preferable to the old physically demanding measures, it could prove difficult to monitor.
"We will be asking our compliance officers to circle back to have a look and make sure people are using that 15 minutes and only that 15 minutes," he said.
"We haven't actually had this system before, this 15 minutes of hand held hose during the two hour window, so, as usual, we're asking the community to do the right thing.
"It is untested, but we feel it will be preferable.
He said the ongoing hot temperatures had sped-up evaporation rates at Chaffey Dam which was still releasing about 118 megalitres a day to various licence holders in the Namoi valley.
"Hopefully, in the next weeks and next months, that weather will cool and that will slow evaporation and slow consumption from the dam," he said.
Mr Lobban said, in the last week, the city was using about 26.5 megalitres a day.
The drought management plan aims for 21 megalitres of daily consumption in residential use under level three restrictions.
Sustainability coordinator Tracey Carr said patrols would not be ramped-up just yet and reports to the council of water misuse had slowed.
"The numbers are dropping off slowly which suggests that less are breaching water restrictions," she said.
"To date we have issued 170 first warning letters and we have issued four second warning letters, there hasn't been a third warning letter issued."