Do you have water restrictions where you live?

I live in Perth, and we have had water restrictions for as long as I can remember.

Our dams are always less than half full, or is it less than half empty?

When I first came to Perth some 40 years ago, there were no restrictions and everyone had lovely green lawns.

However nowadays many lawns are half dead as with 40 plus heat the lawns seem to need more than twice a week watering.

We can water two times a week on specific days and at specific times.

by Finy

All of my herbs and strawberries have died with this heat :(

Melbourne is on permanent restrictions but they are low level at the moment.

There are time restrictions for the use of automatic watering systems, we musn't hose down hard services like driveways, hoses should have a trigger nozzle, and water features should be of the type that recycle water.

These are remnants of stricter measures that had to be in place at the height of the last drought. We have learnt from that to be lest wateful with this precious resource.

We are luckier than many and despit the controversary surrounding it we do now have the wonthaggi deslination plnat which has yet to be put into use.

I reckon if I had a house in the country I would do something other than lawns. Don't really know what as its a trade off between water onservation and keeping bush fire fuel away from the house. Perhaps a stone garden full of succulents.

by Gayle Beveridge

I am in Townsville in North Queenslandd and we have also had water frestricytions for almost the entire 35 years I have been here .It always strikes us up here that this is simply ludicrous as many of us have Bore water which we use to keep our gardens green,and also there is so much water stored in this region that the restrictions are a bit of overkill!!! Before the huge Burdekin Dam was built in the mid 80'sI could understand it,but not now! Mind you,the restrictions are nothing dramatic at all.We can use sprinklers 3 days a week from 4.30 in the afternoon to 9 the following morning. Hand held hoses can be used by adults at any time at all. Monday is the only day when neither odd nor even numbered houses are not allowed to use sprinklers at all.

by Jules

I'm in NSW ...I just had a look on the Web and we are on (in Sydney) ''Water-Wise'' Restrictions.
I can water my garden before 10am...and only after 4pm.
No washing driveways or hard surfaces.
You can use a hose to wash your car, and our Dam has only 60.08% of water at the moment.

This time last year it was on 66.9% of water.

by jonaja

wow, 60% and still restriction! We dont even have 30% I think

OMG!! wow that is low for your Dam!!

Yes our sprinklers go on twice a week here at the villas...

by fran

There are no restrictions placed on us in our apartment block. I think this is because no one has a garden so we probably do not use a lot of water

by AJ

Not that I am aware of. But I have lived in that part of the world where there were lot of water restrictions and the water supply was shut down for few hours every day of the week.

by BK

No

by Maria

There are no water restrictions here. Just a free flow.

by dwatk

by dwatk

I am not really sure (haven;t checked), but since restrictions a couple of years ago, I got used to using less water anyway.

by sjcmm

We had them in Sydney a few years ago but not since. However, we decided to install a large water tank just for the gardens. The front one gets plenty of water when it rains and is usually watered every 2nd day when no rain but under our huge double carport, it gets no rain at all. We received our Summer water bill last week and were pleasantly surprised to have the lowest bill we've ever had. The orchids have regular watering as well and there's at least 100 of them in various growth stages and our raised veggie and herb gardens so we've done well with water.

by helga

No. They never have water restrictions during winter, even if it doesn't rain for 2/3 months!

by Miro