Walcha’s future water supply requirements are currently under review according to Walcha Council’s director of engineering Matthew Fanning.
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“About four months ago we commenced a Secure Yield Study for Water Supply project to determine how secure Walcha’s water supply is given Council’s current infrastructure,” said Mr Fanning.
“We expect this study to be completed by the end of March and we have also applied to the Minister for Natural Resources, Lands and Water for funding to further secure our water supply.
“We have had two severe water shortages in the last 12 months which has never happened before and we need to understand what we’ve got and what we need to secure our future supply.”
While the rainfall received over the last two months saw the Macdonald River level reach an height of 4.3 metres during the last week of 2014 last week it was back to 3.5 metres.
“There is still no huge flow through the river and Level 3 water restrictions are still in place,” Mr Fanning said.
“The worrying thing is that while we have had good rain, the household consumption levels are still high.”
Mr Fanning said the three triggers which will be used to gauge whether or not restriction levels will be reduced are: the river levels; consumption levels and climatic outlook.
“As our water source is a running river it is hard to set one trigger point as you could with a water storage facility such as a dam.
“We need to be responsible consumers of water and we are asking people to continue to be diligent and follow the Level 3 rules,” Mr Fanning said.
Water use on Level 3 restrictions should be between 190-230 litres per person per day, and in the past fortnight it has been 256.56 litres per person per day
Level 3 restrictions mean for those connected to the town water supply, watering systems or hoses may not be used – this includes hand held hoses and fixed hoses, sprinklers or underground water systems of any nature. Bucket watering is permitted but is restricted to two hours per day between the hours of either 6am to 8am or 6pm to 8pm. The water restrictions will be reviewed again next week.