Brent Gowland from Brent Gowland Tipper and Water Tank Hire said he has experienced an increase in calls due to above average temperatures and a lack of rain throughout April.

Bathurst’s average maximum temperature for April is 20.6 degrees Celsius, however, so far this month the average maximum temperature has been 25 degrees. 

The city has only received 8.8 millimetres of rain to date this month, while the April average is 40.9 millimetres. 

To ease water shortages at times like this, Bathurst Regional Council has water filling stations in Hereford Street where people can purchase water in large volumes to fill their tanks. 

Water carters like Mr Gowland work with people on acreages and larger properties, transporting water to their homes. 

“It is 24-hours-a-day service, which is what we need, because people run out of water on the weekends and at night when they’re home,” he said. 

Mr Gowland’s truck can carry 12,000 litres of water, but quite often people are in need of far more than that.

“They are governed by the size of the truck,” he said. “As it gets drier, you normally find people ask for two or three truck loads because they don’t like sitting there watching the tanks.”

The volume of calls differ from one day to the next for Mr Gowland, but he said sometimes it gets so busy he just can’t make it to everyone’s property the day they call.

“You mightn’t get anyone ring today and then you get four people the next day,” he said.

“It really varies. Sometimes we just say we can’t get out there for a couple of days if we have three or four jobs.” 

It takes approximately 20 minutes for water to be pumped from the truck into the water tanks on a property, but it can take longer depending on how easy it is to access the tanks. 

For more information about the water refilling stations on Hereford Street, visit the environment section of council’s website.