Shoalhaven Water director Carmel Krogh announced on Thursday, October 5 that the pumps at Bamerang stopped on Saturday, September 30.

“Dam levels are currently 95 per cent. At the current demand level we would expect level one water restrictions in November,” she said. 

“We are closely monitoring all demand patterns.” 

Ms Krogh described the region’s main storage at Bamerang Water Treatment Plant as an “offf-creek storage dam” which means it has very little or no water catchment.

“It’s not designed to be filled from a catchment so when we stop pumping it will … keep drawing down and we will need to implement stage one water restrictions,” she said.

That would be a return to water restrictions not seen by South Coast communities since the big dry experienced seven years ago.

Bamerang Treatment Plant was at 95.9 per cent of its total storage capacity on Tuesday, October 3. On the same day flow rates were 79 mega litres per day, and usage was 48.01 mega litres per day.

There are about four levels of water restrictions but the Shoalhaven been able to, so far, avoid those tougher limitations.

“The continued dry spell is having an impact on the Shoalhaven River flows which is the trigger to implementing water restrictions,” Ms Krogh said.

“We have been lucky over the last seven years with only the threat of restrictions occurring, but with dry predictions forecast … we must encourage the community to be conscious of water usage so that we can conserve our supply.”