Victorians will gain more time in wetter years to use sprinklers on their gardens under new water restrictions recommended by the state’s retailers and to be released today.
The sweeping review by water companies - commissioned by the Baillieu government this year - outlines a set of ”simplified” restriction stages and permanent water-saving rules to apply across the state.
The proposed changes include expanded watering hours for residential and commercial gardens under permanent water-saving rules and stage one restrictions.
Under the changes, automatic watering systems can be turned on for an extra four hours a day, with an extra two hours for manual systems, if only permanent water-saving rules are in place.
Under revised stage one restrictions, the use of sprinkler systems would be doubled from the present 14 hours a week, for both automatic and manual systems, to 28 hours.
There would be no changes to the amount of time watering systems could be used under stage two restrictions - now in force in Melbourne - although the time of day automatic systems can be turned on would be moved from the middle of the night to the early morning and late evening.
The review proposes toughening the use of watering under stage three restrictions, restricting manual systems by an hour a week and automatic systems by seven hours a week.
The Baillieu government has now called for submissions on the proposed restrictions. The changes could be in place by as early as next month.
State Water Minister Peter Walsh said the changes were designed to lock in water-saving behaviour adopted during the drought and establish consistency across the state.
In an interview with The Age last week, Mr Walsh said the Baillieu government’s plans to expand the use of stormwater harvesting and recycled water for Melbourne’s non-drinking use would hopefully rid the need for restrictions in the future.
”We will hopefully be off restrictions. Restrictions in the middle of a drought is a signal you’ve got to do, but the aim would not to be on restrictions,” he said.
Other recommendations for the shake-up of water restrictions include:
■ No longer requiring permits to fill a pool larger than 2000 litres for the first time when no restrictions are in place.
■ Getting rid of the controversial stage 3a restrictions put in place by the Brumby government as an alternative to stage four restrictions.
■ Expanding the trigger to raise or lower restriction stages beyond dam levels to include issues such as expected and past rainfall, current water consumption rates and historic inflows among others.
