DOING OUR LEVEL BEST
Dubbo told: Get ready for Level 4 water restrictions
DUBBO Regional Council voted this week to start Level 3 water restrictions on Monday, October 1, followed by Level 4 water restrictions from Friday, November 1.
Level 2 water restrictions introduced in July failed to ignite residents to do the right thing, causing water usage in the time since to actually increase.
“I need Dubbo regional residents to start saving water and taking this seriously. It is incredibly disappointing that Level 2 hasn’t worked,” mayor Ben Shields said.
A staged approach will be adopted by Council to ease the city into Level 4 restrictions to allow big business and big users to get ready.
During public forum on Monday night addressing councillors, Fletcher International Exports owner Roger Fletcher disagreed with the need for a delay.
“You’ve got to get awareness to the public, and you say you’re going to do that. (The current situation) is critical and restrictions should start straight away. With our business and what it needed to do, we put it together in a couple of hours, so its rubbish you need a month,” Mr Fletcher said.
Peter Schuster was one of several speakers who rely on ground water for their irrigation enterprises, and objected to recent negative commentary around their industry.
“Times are tough. Our operation currently covers 3200 hectares just south of Dubbo but because of the season we are relying on just 52 hectares of irrigation. Irrigation is the only thing that is allowing us to continue to support local farm supply businesses as well as local transport companies, local contractors, mechanics, and many more,” he said.
“We need to be, and are, efficient water users and employ the latest and most efficient forms of water delivery technology,” Mr Schuster told the meeting.
After 25 minutes of discussion on what water level restrictions needed to be put into place for Dubbo, councillors agreed on the October 1 and November 1 dates for implementing Levels 3 and 4 respectively.
“We don’t need businesses like Fletcher’s shutting down. We don’t need primary producers switching off the taps which feed this community,” Cr Greg Mohr said. “Every living organism in this world needs water.
“Dubbo residents need to come on board and say ‘enough is enough’ and start doing it. We had climate action here last Friday. This is a perfect time for the community to stand up and say ‘we can do it’,” he added.
Council CEO Michael Mcmahon advised Level 4 restrictions will result in a significant cut to the amount of outdoor water usage.
“I would encourage residents to familiarise themselves with the changes. It also requires people to rethink the way they use water within their homes such as shorter showers and full loads of washing.
“Watering will still need to abide by the odds and evens system outlined previously,” Mr Mcmahon said.
During an interview with ABC Western Plains radio on Tuesday, Mayor Ben Shields described a letter from the NSW Minister for Water Melinda Pavey, received half an hour before Council met on Monday night encouraging it to impose restrictions, as political posturing.
DUBBO Regional Councillors this week voted to introduce Level 3 water restrictions across the local government area effective Monday, October 1, and then move to Level 4 restrictions as of November 1.
Dubbo Photo News’s online posts on these announcements attracted hundreds of responses. The following selection proves this remains an emotive issue for Dubbo region residents.
Kay: If you have to run a tap or the shower for a while before it gets hot, put a bucket or buckets under it and collect the cold water until it’s hot. Then you can utilise the cold water you’ve collected.
Jess: Hope the council will be getting fines as well! I was walking through the Japanese Gardens the other day and they had their sprinklers on at 11am!
Dubbo Photo News responded: Council is using grey water, as they are on all the parks and ovals.
Martin: My thoughts are with all the residents of Dubbo. It’s unfortunate that State Water hasn’t called for Level 4 restrictions instead – they are the ones that make the recommendations.
Elle: Great news! It took so long for this to happen. Level 3 is soft. We are in an unprecedented drought.
Richard: My thoughts are with all my family and friends in the Dubbo area, however... Why are you still watering lawns and gardens? They can be replanted when the rains come – people can’t! I’ve lived in areas where water is more precious than gold. Save what you can and eliminate any non-essential use and hopefully water will arrive soon.
Kath: I hope that vegies and fruit trees are exempt from this. I use the hand-held hose for both. Vegies about twice per week and fruit trees every second week at the moment.
Joshua: Realistically we should be on higher levels of water restrictions, considering when the water restrictions started the rate of water use went higher. These restrictions should have been in place a long time ago. People don’t seem to take it seriously so why not go on higher levels. Considering a person in Dubbo uses at least 400 litres of water every day, it’s just ridiculous.
Mary: I am sorry, I can not see the difference between using hand-held hoses and a soaker hose. Please people, your lawns are not important to water, they will come back when we do get rain. It is important to conserve our precious water.
Andrew: I’m happy to comply – but it makes no sense that watering systems can’t be used, and a soaker hose can be. My irrigation system is a very accurate, timed system – no chance of leaving it in the one spot for too long like a soaker hose or letting more water on one area than necessary.
Glenn: Let’s hope everyone abides by the restrictions and does the right thing to conserve as much water as possible.
David: What gets my goat is the amount of bottled water that is thrown out. I work as a cleaner and the bottles of water I rescue from bins and pour on the garden is staggering. I have even had whole packs of unopened bottled water in the bin. People are insane!
Don: And what about using sprinklers that run from your rainwater tanks? What will the council do then and how do they police that?
Ruth: A soaker hose left on for the allocated three hours will use a hell of a lot more water than most people think! We have a timed system that comes on for 15 minutes with wobble T sprinklers, using way less water than a soaker hose.
Annette: Why are real estate agents asking us to water in a drought. We should be using zero water on lawns. This is serious.
Jeni: Sales of soaker hoses are going to go thru the roof in next two weeks.
Glenys: I had my watering system timed. Soaker hoses waste water. Water comes out the end of the connection all the time, no matter what. Also, I can’t move them around being in the wheelchair and on my own. A watering system much better all round for me and water waste.
Dale: What about using wobble-tee sprinklers. Less volume of water and better coverage.
Kylie: I believe that the heavy restrictions should already be in place. I’m not using any hose, sprinkler or drip system for my lawn and garden, I’m catching all my laundry water into buckets and using that, also my washing up water used in pot plants.
Teagan: This should have been done months ago!
Cecelia: We have a timed, wi-fi, linked-to-weather sprinkler system and can show exact water use – it runs minimally with no run-off and, as a house, we stay under daily target levels, so why force me to move to a soaker hose – it will use more!
Kaye: Hope people do the right thing. I have just driven home from downtown and spotted two people washing cars on cement driveways.
Erica (from Bathurst): Bathurst will be in extreme water restrictions very soon. We have already been on this kind of restriction since at least June and we have more water – what the hell is Dubbo doing?
Scott: This lack of water didn’t happen overnight people. It’s been going on for over two years.
Dane: If it’s getting that bad, just let the lawn and plants die. If we end up running out of drinking water, we’ll all feel pretty stupid for wasting it on lawns.
Wendy: What about two-minute showers.
Linda: About time. Shower with buckets under you, then throw that water on the lawn and plants. Use a timer for three-minute showers. Everybody needs to get on board to save our water.
Sean: Just spent the money getting the correct sprinklers to satisfy Level 3 coming, only to now find out I’ve wasted my money as I can only use them for a month (until Level 4 restrictions begin).
Jennifer: (Answering a question why we’re not going straight to Level 4 restrictions.) Not everyone truly knows how to conserve water. It’s not easy to completely change your lifestyle overnight, even if you really want to. This month between levels will give people time to adjust.