Despite recent heavy rains, Mangrove Creek Dam is sitting at just 52.4 per cent capacity as at September 16, and Central Coast Council is calling on residents to limit their water usage to 150L each day.
Level 1 restrictions are set to come in when the level dips to 50 per cent, with a motion to be considered at Councils next meeting on September 25 to bypass Level 1 and go straight to Level 2 restrictions. Council has launched new online tools to help residents work out how to cut daily water usage.
“Love water: Live to 150L” provides an online calculator which helps residents work out their water consumption, along with providing water saving ideas and a chance for residents to win a monthly prize by submit their own water-wise tips.
Council’s Director, Water and Sewer, Jamie Loader, said every resident currently uses an average of 180L of water each day for activities like showering, washing clothes and dishes, cooking and cleaning. Despite recent rain, our region is affected by drought and were asking every resident to save the equivalent of three buckets of water each day to meet the 150-litre target, Loader said.
For instance, we use almost half of our household water in the bathroom, so making small behavioural changes like showering for less than four minutes can save thousands of litres every year. Meanwhile, permanent Water Wise Rules currently in place help residents save water outdoors. Original predictions had estimated Mangrove Creek Dam would reach 50 percent this month, but Loader said that following recent rains, and with Mardi Dam coming back on line, Mangrove Creek was likely to remain above the threshold for longer.
manage our water supply responsibly to ensure high quality drinking water is provided to the community, based on the best available science in water management, he said. For this reason, we havent been drawing from Mardi Dam recently due to warmer than usual temperatures impacting the water quality. Thanks to the recent late winter cold snap, water quality has improved, and we are once again able to pump, treat and supply the community with water from Mardi Dam.
Mayor, Jane Smith, urged all residents to accept the challenge of living to 150L. As part of informing Councils Community Strategic Plan, our community told us they want a drought resilient Coast where water is used responsibly, Clr Smith said. We have listened and invested considerably in expanding and strengthening our water infrastructure, so we are more drought-proof now and in the future.
This, together with us each being water wise now, may mean that we are able to avoid reaching the very low dam levels which saw us on stringent Level 4 water restrictions during the Millennium Drought. Every drop counts.
Source: Media release, Sep 5 Central Coast Council Central Coast Council website, September 17, 2019.
The website can be found at centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/lovewater.