Stage 3 Water Restrictions will be introduced in coming weeks for late spring and summer

ACTEW Corporation Managing Director Mark Sullivan announced the community-wide exemptions from Stage 3 Water Restrictions that will be introduced in coming weeks for late spring and summer.

In line with the spring clean initiative last year, for a two-week and three-weekend period (14 - 29 November 2009 inclusive) current Stage 3 Water Restrictions will be slightly relaxed to allow spring cleaning of the city. The washing of windows, buildings, paved areas and vehicles will be allowed using potable water (drinking/tap water), provided the cleaning is done using water responsibly and within ACTEW’s guidelines.

As in previous years, ACTEW will also introduce the general exemption to allow limited weekend use of sprinklers over the Christmas holiday period (from 19 December 2009 to 31 January 2010 inclusive).

“Following the community’s continued water saving efforts and some reasonable inflows to our dams over spring, the ACT’s water storages are currently sitting at 54.3% of capacity, a slight improvement from the same time last year when they were at 51.7%, and a dramatic improvement from the same time in 2007 when they were just 41.7%,” said Mr Sullivan.

“While we are not in a position to remove Stage 3, current water storages give us confidence to once again be able to afford to offer the community the ability to clean cars and those areas of our homes that may require the use of potable water to maintain,” he said.

Mr Sullivan stressed that the spring clean initiative should not be seen as an indication that the region’s water situation was no longer serious and encouraged people to use the opportunity wisely.

“It’s important to remember that while the very idea that we are able to relax restrictions at all does show that we are in a better position than in previous years we are still battling the ongoing effects of drought and climate change. It is only a few months ago that our dam levels were declining and were around 43%.

“It’s essential to remain cautious with our water use, to follow the restrictions and save water whenever we can, especially over the hot and dry summer period,” he said.

The spring/summer exemptions will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and ACTEW reserves the right to reassess its decision and remove these exemptions should the water situation change significantly.

The details of the exemptions are available at http://www.actew.com.au/savewaterforlife/WaterRestrictions/current_restr....