North East Water customers will now have more flexibility to use their allotted watering time under stages 1, 2 and 3 water restrictions.

Effective immediately, evening watering times have been extended by three hours, allowing watering between 5pm and 10pm.Importantly, the forecast usage is still based on a maximum of four hours on allocated days.

The Corporation’s Managing Director, Jim Martin, said the modification would provide customers with more flexibility in watering gardens, particularly as days begin to get shorter.

“With fewer daylight hours, we want to make it easier for customers to be able to maintain their gardens, especially the elderly and those who find the current arrangement difficult,” he said.

“This has been enabled by the community’s efforts to conserve water over the summer, and it’s a move that we hope will address many concerns and make a positive difference for people.”

Mr Martin said he did not expect water consumption to rise with the modified watering times.

“We are aware that our customers are generally conscientious in conserving water, so we trust that they won’t take advantage of the relaxed watering times,” he said.

“We monitor each town’s consumption very closely, so we expect to see an earlier usage peak on watering days, but not an increase in consumption overall.

“The relaxed watering hours will be reviewed if total consumption does rise.”

The modification will mean:

• Under Stage 1, lawns and gardens can be watered for up to four hours on alternate days between 6am and 8am and 5pm and 10pm
• Under Stage 2, gardens only can be watered for up to four hours on alternate days between 6am and 8am and 5pm and 10pm
• Under Stage 3, gardens only can be watered for up to four hours between 6am and 8am and 5pm and 10pm on Sunday and Wednesday (odd street numbers) or Saturday and Tuesday (even or no street numbers)

Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Matt Lane

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