Douglas Shire today removed Level 1 water restrictions, but water conservation measures will remain.

Douglas Shire will move to Level 0 community water conservation measures for the first time to continue regulating the days consumers can use water, but with much less restriction on use.

By introducing Level 0, water wise behaviour continues to be promoted with alternate watering days remaining and overnight irrigation encouraged.

These measures support water wise gardening practices, where established gardens do not require daily watering and watering is done at times when evaporation is low.

The Bureau of Meteorology has moved their ENSO outlook to La Niña which means there is possibly an early rainfall onset for the 2021–22 season across most of northern Australia.

Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr said Level 0 status would keep the community thinking about the valued resource heading into the wet season.

“The community has already done a fantastic job adhering to Level 1 Water Restrictions,” he said.

“Latest weather forecasts and recent rainfall, which have replenished our creeks, has guided the decision to remove Level 1 Water Restrictions.

“This means the maximum irrigation time of four hours required has been removed, but we continue to encourage water wise behaviour

“Water conservation needs to be on everyone’s mind, even in the wet season when periods of heavy rainfall can cause high turbidity events at our intakes.”

Water conservation measures

Water conservation measures are the first-line option for the control and management of subsurface drainage water. Conservation measures involve reducing the amount of drainage water and they include: source reduction through sound irrigation water management; shallow water table management; groundwater management; and land retirement. These measures affect other options such as the reuse and disposal of drainage water.

In general, conservation measures consist of measures that aim to reduce the quantity of drainage effluent and measures that aim to reduce the mass emission of constituents into receiving water. Water quality impacts to water users (agriculture, fisheries, etc.) are reflected in terms of concentration but the control of drainage from irrigated lands is in terms of water volume and mass discharge of constituents.

For full details on the Level 0 conditions, please refer to Schedule 1 Water Restrictions.