Water restrictions likely

Bourke Shire Council General Manager Ross Earl expects to impose level one water restrictions soon. PHOTO TWH

All eyes are on the Bourke weir as river levels begin to drop and the possibility of water restrictions becomes more likely.

Bourke Shire Council General Manager Ross Earl said it was almost inevitable water restrictions would have to be imposed unless there was a significant rain event to top up supplies.

“The river is hovering around four metres at Bourke and stops running over the weir at about 3.97 metres, so it could keep flowing for a few more days with local rainfall, but we’ll have to keep an eye on the river gauge,” Mr Earl said.

“We’ve just gone through a massive drought which has shown us again that water is a precious resource, so we always have to be mindful about usage.

“By the end of this week levels will most likely have dropped to a no-flow scenario over the weir, which is the level that puts us into level one water restrictions.

“It really depends on if and when we get rain and it doesn’t take that much to put water in the river.

“But unless there is a lot of localised rainfall, I think we’ll be looking at restrictions.

“When we came out of drought there was water in storages and the water flowed right down to the bottom of the system – to the Menindee Lakes and then on down to the Murray at Wentworth.

Read more in the printed edition of The Western Herald. Call (02) 6872 2333 today and receive The Western Herald in your letterbox next week!