Water can be used for drinking, food preparation, hygiene and sanitary purposes only. There is a complete ban on any outdoor water use.
Conserving water and reservoirs
Water is a valuable resource and even in places renowned for rain, like the West Coast, it is important that we use water responsibly.
Council manages various water supplies and reservoirs to provide the community with sufficient safe drinking water. Once the water reservoir falls below a certain percentage Council issues a water conservation notice to ensure there is sufficient quantities of potable water for domestic and commercial needs and public amenities connected to the water supply.
These will be issued on our water notices, facebook page and print, radio or email if required. These orders remain in place until the reservoir has sufficiently recovered.
Water restriction definitions
Limited use of water for operational and maintenance priorities as required for business sustainability.
Limited residential outdoor use with hand-held buckets, watering cans and no water blasting allowed.
No high-use consumption/filling activities or general hard-surface hosing is permitted, including unattended sprinkler devices.
Considerate use of water for all activities, following Council’s water saving tips.
Conservation replaces ‘normal use’ for our current system.
Below are a few water conservation hints that can help to save water.
Economise
Be aware of the amount of water you use and look for ways to use less.
Maintenance
A leaking tap can waste more than 350 litres of water each day. Check your taps and replace worn washers or valve seats as needed. Use low flow shower heads, aerators or flow restrictors. For older toilets, install a toilet dam or displacement device such as a brick or large stone. Always use fittings appropriately rated for your area, Westport in particular has very high water pressure. Use of appropriately rated pipes and fittings is especially important in pipes over 25m long or where a leak would go unnoticed.
Save outdoors
Water your lawn or gardens only when it needs it. Landscape with trees and shrubs that require less water. Water gardens with a handheld hose or watering can rather than leaving a sprinkler unattended, consider collecting roof water for your garden.
Water reservoirs
Once a water supply falls below 70% a restricted water use order is put in place. If the water supply falls below 50% an essential water use order is issued. These orders remain in place until the reservoir has sufficiently recovered.
Water reservoir levels
You can view below the reservoir water levels over the previous two days for all except the Westport water reservoir. The graph for this reservoir displays the previous seven days.
The percentage indicates how much water the reservoir currently has.
