THE Chifley Dam water level has dropped to the lowest figure seen since the wall was raised around 20 years ago.
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As of Tuesday, the dam was at 40.9 per cent capacity, slightly lower than the previous record of 41.0 per cent that was set in June, 2003.
The latest figure shows a decrease of 1.1 per cent from the previous week and, with there being no rain forecast for at least the next week, the level is expected to keep falling.
Councillor Monica Morse recently expressed her serious concerns for water security, noting that Dubbo recently relaxed its water restrictions after a little rain, while Lithgow has yet to impose any restrictions.
She called the decisions of those other council areas "extremely foolish" and asked at what point Bathurst would even consider relaxing its own water restrictions.
Darren Sturgiss, council's director of Engineering Services, said it wouldn't be any time soon.
"For us to even be considering relaxing our water restrictions, we are going to need a considerable amount - I mean several hundreds of millimetres of rain," he said.
Bathurst has been on water restrictions for 12 months, starting at level three (high) on November 26, 2018.
The restrictions were tightened on October 14 to level four-five (extreme) following an extended period of minimal rainfall.
Council hopes that other water saving projects it is trying to embark on now would prevent a switch to the next level, but there are no guarantees.
And, even if the drought were to end, council would be very cautious moving forward to ensure it doesn't find itself in the same predicament next time there is a drought.
"Council certainly will not be relaxing when the rain comes. We will be continuing to be pushing for a regional water security solution into the future," Mr Sturgiss said.
He said meetings will continue to be held with the NSW Government about Bathurst's long-term water security plans, where it will be lobbying for financial support to execute projects like the Chifley Dam pipeline.
"The pipeline to Chifley Dam is in excess of $55 million, so in terms of scheduling that work we'll be at the subject of council's future budgets and I also anticipate assistance from the state government to provide that security for our water, not only for Bathurst, but for the Central West," Mr Sturgiss said.
