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DOUGLAS Shire residents will be granted a two-hour window this afternoon to clean up mud left on their homes caused by the recent flooding event.

Fresh water levels have stabilized ‘significantly’ since Tuesday when the threat of having to boil water was looming large on the region.

As such, locals will be allowed to use garden hoses on hard surfaces from 2pm to 4pm today.

Mayor Julia Leu has thanked the community for listening to the warnings and praised the council’s water teams.

“This was an impressive, community-wide effort to secure our water supplies for the Easter break and we want to thank everyone by giving you a guilt-free pass to hose some mud away,” Cr Leu said.

“This is an opportunity to wash away any mud and get our shire looking its pristine best. But we need to remember water is a precious resource and must be conserved during periods of heavy rainfall.”

It comes as Port Douglas, Mossman and Craiglie water supplies have returned to much safer levels after the former dropped to just 16 per cent earlier in the week. 

Heavy rain can cause high volumes of water containing silt, sand and vegetation to block the intakes and stop a full flow of water to the treatment plant.

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This causes high turbidity levels that slow down the water treatment process required to make clean and safe water.

CURRENT WATER LEVELS
- Mossman 69%
- Port Res 59%
- Craiglie Res 53%
- Flagstaff Res 74%
- Whyanbeel Res 82%
- Daintree Res 73%