Our Environment, Irrigations and Watering Systems, Rain Water Harvesting & Grey Water
At the time of writing (February 2015) our water levels were almost 80% full. This level is not far off the highest its been since December 1997. On December 1st 2012 the Victorian Government replaced water restrictions with permanent water use rules. Hopefully most people are still maintaining many of the water conservation methods they adopted during the long drought.
Even though the restrictions have been lifted we must continue to treat water as a scarce resource and do everything we can do to use it wisely not only to ensure we all have enought water but also to help reduce our escallation water bill.
The following link will take you to the Melbourne Water website which has the most information you can possibly find about our water levels and their history.
The graph left showing Melbourne changing water levels was arguably one of the most recognisable graph in Melbourne during the draught.
MELBOURNE'S PERMENANT WATER USE RULES
Below is a direct extract from the Melbourne Water website as at February 4th 2015.
What permanent water use rules mean
|Residential and commercial gardens and lawns|
|Hand watering||Gardens and lawns can be watered at any time, on any day using a hand held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle.|
|Watering systems||Watering systems (manual or automatic, spray or dripper) can be used to water gardens and lawns from 6pm to 10am, on any day.|
|At home||Cars may be washed at home with the following methods at any time, on any day:
To provide the community with more information, each year, Melbourne Water and the water retailers collaborate to produce a summary of the status of water supply and demand in Melbourne called the Water Outlook . Published by 1 December each year, the Water Outlook includes information on water storages, water use and the ongoing management of Melbourne's water resources in the short to medium term.
For ease of communication, system performance will be reported in three zones: High (Melbourne's water supply is secure), Medium (we need to take actions to secure water supplies), or Low (emergency circumstances have been experienced and a wider range of supply and demand actions including more severe water restrictions are needed to secure Melbourne's water supply).