The Tyalgum Water Supply area will move to level two water restrictions from midnight Sunday, 6 December.
Tweed Shire Council announced on Wednesday that it had already begun the necessary process required to move restrictions to level two with plans to move them to level four if need be.
‘Given the current flow conditions in the Oxley River and average daily water consumption, without rain soon Tyalgum will go to level 4 water restrictions potentially within two to four weeks,’ the manager of Water and Wastewater Operations, Brie Jowett said.
The restrictions will apply to all residential and commercial customers who are connected to the Tyalgum water supply.
Level 2 restrictions
Level two restrictions are focussed on limiting outdoor water usage. They aim to reduce the average usage of residents to 144 litres per day, last week the average usage for Tylagum residents was 191 litres.
Locals will be required to water their garden on alternating days depending on their house number (odd house numbers water on odd dates and even house numbers on even dates) for no more than 30 minutes with a hose or 15 minutes with an irrigation system.
Cars can be washed for a total of 10 minutes between 4 pm and 9 am using efficient high-pressure cleaners where possible.
Existing pools and spas can be topped up in these same times but may not be emptied and refilled.
The Council has stated that it is likely to trigger pre-restriction activities for the wider Tweed area if the dry weather continues and the water level in the Clarrie Hall Dam continues to fall past critical levels.
Tyalgum water customers can read the full list of Level 2 water restrictions in Council’s Policy – Drought Water Restrictions, available on Council’s website.
Tyalgum has a serious problem with their water storage. It is just not deep enough, Tweed Council is too slack to head up and deepen the water storage by at least 2 metres. Doesn’t sound much, this additional depth will mean no water restrictions for Tyalgum.
I look at Ballarat in Victoria, Lake Wendouree is part of allarat’s water storage system for drinking water. During an extremely viscious drought where Lake Wendouree was totally dry, Ballarat Council used this time to clean out and deepen the Lake. Since this was done Lake Wendouree has not run dry.
“Restrictions” are not popular, could we use education and encouragement instead? Good luck with reducing individual’s domestic demand from 191 litres to 144 litres! Last year, Tweed individual domestic demand went up roughly from 180 litres to over 190 litres during Level 1 restrictions. Level 4 restrictions seem outrageous.
Everyone can expect secure water. For the upper catchment that means enough water to cover the driest spell without rain, that is, a big enough reservoir of appropriate raw water. So, dig a bigger hole or add a large tank.
The latest scientific opinion is, don’t rely on rainfall for domestic water security. TSC has helped solve water problems in Africa. So, we have the water specialists. What about considering a sky juice water purifier? Or could we use water mining without plastic bottles to help our own community?