LARGE volumes of water are being released from Chaffey Dam, as high-security water users try to make the most of their allocation before the Peel River is cut off in nine days' time.
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Close to 60 megalitres - about four times Tamworth's daily use - is being released a day, which is expected to continue until November 30, when the state government stops the river's flow at the Dungowan weir.
Tamworth is more than a megalitre above its daily water use target of 16.1 megalitres this week, which council said was due to the use of evaporative air conditioners.
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"We've been pretty good up to this point and that's given us a good baseline for our water use," Tamworth Regional Council water sustainability officer Ian Lobban said.
"Anything in excess of the target is due to evaporative air coolers."
Temperatures are expected to soar to the high 30s later this week as a heatwave hits the region.
Mr Lobban urged people to understand how their evaporative cooler worked and to have it serviced to make sure it's running as efficiently as possible.
"We're fully confident people are going to use their evaporative air conditioners as moderately and efficiently as they can," Mr Lobban said.
Although the city is above its daily water use target, Mr Lobban said the council had planned and accounted for the increased water use during the warmer months.
"It's not too much of a concern, it is something we expected," Mr Lobban said.
"If we take in to account the fact we were well under our target in the colder months, we can balance that out.
"We're asking the residents not to take their foot off the pedal.
"We're absolutely not going to take our foot off the pedal in our marketing and community engagement campaign."