A complete ban on using hoses will be enforced when the toughest water restrictions in more than a decade are implemented in parts of New South Wales on Tuesday.
Water restrictions in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Illawarra will be upgraded to level two as dam levels in the region reach 45 per cent, its lowest level seen since the millennium drought.
The harsher restrictions upgraded due to the crippling drought sees a complete ban on hoses, requiring residents to use a bucket and sponge to wash their cars or a watering can to tend to their gardens.
Upgraded restrictions in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Illawarra regions will see a ban on hoses, requiring residents to use a watering can to water their plants (stock image)
Gardens can only be watered before 10am or after 4pm with a watering can or bucket.
Smart and drip irrigation systems can only be used for 15 minutes before 10am or after 4pm.
Swimming pools and spa pools will only be allowed to be topped up for 15 minutes a day with a trigger nozzle and a permit is required before filling a pool that holds more than 500 litres.
‘The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a hot summer, with no forecast for significant rain,’ the Sydney Water website states.
Residents caught breaking the rules could face a $220 fine. Businesses who breach the restrictions would also face a $550 fine.
Exemptions from the water restrictions are available for non-residential customers with outdoor water use as their core business.
The tough water restrictions will be introduced as dam levels diminish due to the crippling drought, requiring residents to use a bucket to wash their cars (stock image pictured)
There will be a complete ban of hoses with possible fines imposed if you’re caught using one
The stricter rules were recently announced after it was discovered the dam level for the greater Sydney catchment was sitting around 46.2 per cent – the lowest in the past 10 years.
Sydney last saw level two water restrictions in 2003. They were upgraded to level three in 2005 due to the Millenium drought.
In 2005, level three water restrictions were enforced in Sydney, where hoses were banned except for two days a week, watering systems and new swimming pools were forbidden and motorists could only wash their cars with buckets.
The restrictions were scrapped four years later in 2009.
Warragamba Dam supplies water to more than 3.7million people living in Sydney and the lower Blue Mountains but its reserves are barely above 47.1 per cent capacity.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian had previously expected to enforce level two water restrictions when dam levels reached 40 per cent.
‘Given the rapid rate of decline of our dam levels we have decided to enact the next level of restrictions sooner than planned,’ she recently said.
‘We’re experiencing one of the most severe droughts on record and we expect introducing Level 2 restrictions to save 78.5 gigalitres of water per year.’
Swimming pools and spa pools will only be allowed to be topped up for 15 minutes a day with a trigger nozzle (stock image)
Experts fear even tougher restrictions could hit Sydneysiders again.
‘You can never accurately predict Sydney’s water levels because we may get some sudden unexpected rain – but on the current trajectory we could require level three restrictions by 2021,’ UNSW Engineering Professor Stuart Khan recently told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Level three restrictions would involve very limited outdoor use of water.’
Professor Khan says Sydneysiders can do their bit to minimise usage by reusing grey water collected from showers, baths, sinks and washing machines.
‘Grey water is the portion of waste water that comes from some of the less contaminated sources of water in a home,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘It most commonly comes from a clothes washing machine, but can also include baths and showers.’
The NSW government re-introduced water restrictions in June to protect Sydney’s supply as the city experiences one of the lowest inflows into its dams since the 1940s.
‘More than 85 per cent of Greater Sydney’s water supply relies on rain. This means that our water is in short supply during prolonged droughts,’ the Sydney Water website states.
It comes after NSW government tried to boost Sydney’s water levels this year by turning on the city’s desalination plant in Kurnell in January.
There are some restrictions in place in all states except Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Western Australia, the ACT, Victoria and SA have permanent restrictions in place.
Go to the Sydney Water website to report possible water restriction breaches.