Sydney’s dam storage levels have dropped below 50% for the first time in more than a decade.
Storages dropped to 49.7% on Thursday, a 0.4% decline on the previous week.
It is the first time since 2004 – which was during the millennium drought – that dam storage levels in Sydney have fallen below 50%.
Sydney has been on stage one water restrictions since May, along with the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra region.
Those restrictions target outdoor water use and include limiting the watering of lawns and gardens to early morning and late afternoon.
At the time of their introduction, the state’s water minister, Melinda Pavey, said Sydney was experiencing some of the lowest inflows into its dams since the 1940s.
While Sydney had good rainfall in June, both July and August have been below average and the Bureau of Meteorology’s long-term outlook for spring is for more dry conditions.
Ilona Coote, a climatologist at the Bom, said the outlook for September, October and November was for lower than average rainfall right across the country, except for on the west coast.
Under the metropolitan water plan, Sydney would move to level-two water restrictions when dam storage levels reach 40% but that requires a decision from the NSW government.
A spokeswoman for Sydney Water said the existing restrictions were helping, with water use down 7% in the month of July.
She said Sydney residents were using 100 megalitres less water a day than they were a decade ago.
“It’s worth noting that 75% of residential water use happens indoors, so we’re calling on people to save water inside the home too,” she said.
“Reducing showers by one minute saves on average nine litres of water. If everyone cut a minute off their shower, collectively Sydneysiders could save 45m litres of water every day.”
She said Sydney Water and the government were still closely monitoring the drought and assessing ways to respond to it.
Sydney’s desalination plant has been delivering water to the network since March and reached full capacity in July, a few months ahead of schedule.
The plant is now supplying an average of 250m litres of water a day, which is equivalent to about 15% of Sydney’s water requirements.
Pavey announced last week that work had started on preliminary plans to expand the plant “to ensure Sydney’s water supply is maintained”.
