LEVEL 3 water restrictions come into place across the Bathurst region today with still many more questions than answers.
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And the biggest question remains, just why did Bathurst Regional Council decide to jump straight to Level 3 restrictions after priding itself for so long on having no water restrictions at all?
Yesterday, it would have been perfectly fine or a homeowner to spend the entire day hosing down their driveway [not that anyone would have recommended it].
Today, if that person has an odd number on their mailbox, they are not allowed to turn on their hose at all.
We’ve gone from the sublime to the ridiculous and, in the process, put at risk local businesses and many pampered local gardens.
And all this is happening while the water level at Ben Chifley Dam still sits around 60 per cent.
Prior to the raising of the dam wall, that same amount of water would have had the dam flowing over at the spillway.
Of course, times have changed in the two decades since the wall was raised.
Bathurst’s population has continued to grow rapidly and shows no signs of slowing, while the impacts of climate change have seen us endure some of the hottest, driest summers – and winters – on record.
To its credit, council is determined to be prepared for the worst case scenario of another year or two of below average rainfall, and one justification for the jump to Level 3 restrictions is the hope it might mean we don’t need higher restrictions down the track.
But those preparations should have started long ago.
Bathurst could have gone to Level 1 or Level 2 water restrictions many years ago to save a bit of water but, more importantly, to send the message that water conservation was something to be serious about.
The transition to Level 1 or Level 2 restrictions would have given home owners and businesses the chance to make decisions that would have put them in good stead this morning.
And just as the introduction of Level 3 restrictions today might mean we don’t need Level 4 restrictions down the track, the earlier introduction of Level 1 and Level 2 restrictions might have meant we wouldn’t be going to Level 3 today.
But council didn’t and today we are. This fight has only just begun.