Albury adopts Stage 4 water restrictions

AlburyCity decided to adopt Stage 4 water restrictions, complying with a request from the NSW Department of Water and Energy.

However, Council will seek an audience with Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, and NSW Minister for Water, Phillip Costa, to address serious anomalies in the way NSW and Victorian Governments are approaching water restrictions. AlburyCity will request intervention to ensure that authorities that draw water from the same source are subject to the same level of restriction whether in NSW or Victoria.

Stage 4 restrictions do not allow watering of gardens and lawns.

Council acknowledged that moving to Stage 4 would result in insignificant savings in water usage, as current rainfall means the need for outside watering is low. However, the NSW Department of Water and Energy has indicated Stage 4 restrictions are necessary until it has achieved 20% of its high-security water allocation. This currently sits at three per cent.

Based on historical data and advice from the Department, it is expected that a 20% high-security allocation will be achieved within the next two months, depending on rainfall in the catchment area. This would allow water restrictions to be relaxed to Stage 3a, under the Department's water restriction policy.
 
Council requests that the community continues to be conservative in its use of water until the issue of state anomalies is resolved.

Council will review water allocations and restrictions on a monthly basis to determine whether it should purchase water and enable restrictions to be relaxed to Stage 3a.

Read more about Stage 4 water restrictions.