Tweed’s water restrictions lifted following significant rain

10 February 2020

Effective Monday 10 February 2020

Water restrictions across the Tweed have been lifted following 200mm of rainfall in the catchment area in recent days.

Clarrie Hall Dam is now at 100 per cent and there are significant river flows at Bray Park Weir.

Manager Water and Wastewater Anthony Burnham said residents and business can return to normal water usage but everyone is encouraged to continue any water saving habits for the long term.

“This last lot of rain has taken the dam level from 82.5 per cent on Wednesday 5 February to 100 per cent yesterday,” Mr Burnham said.

“The rain has caused a number of maintenance and safety issues in our public parks and these take priority over turning back on beach showers and taps, so please be patient as we work through this. It may take up to two weeks.

“No further business restriction permits will be issued and any business with a Level 2 Restriction permit has now expired.”

Throughout Council’s Save Water Now campaign - which launched in early December 2019 - Council heard from many residents and businesses about their innovative water saving tips, both outdoors and indoors.

Residents were asked to focus on reducing their outdoor use and read their meters to monitor and detect household leaks. Many also took up the four-minute shower challenge and collected a free shower timer.

Before the very heavy rain on 18 January, the Tweed came within weeks of experiencing harsher water restrictions – which would have impacted how households ran and how businesses operated.

“We know there is still some work to do around how we think about and consume water as a community,” Mr Burnham said.

“We will be continuing with an education campaign to achieve our water consumption target of 160L per person per day. What we do know is that by changing your household or business water consumption habits you will save money and overall contribute to reducing the Tweed’s carbon footprint.

“Tyalgum led the way by showing us how to do it when they achieved their Level 4 target of 126L per person per day (Tyalgum is supplied by a different water source),” he said.

“In the coming months we will also be reviewing the Drought Water Restrictions Policy to adjust it based on what we learnt from the 2019/20 drought.

“We’re looking at earlier implementation of restriction levels and possibly permanent water saving measures to protect this limited resource.”