People in greater Sydney can now hose their gardens, cars and even themselves as water restrictions are lifted on the first day of summer.
Water restrictions for greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Illawarra have been scrapped from Tuesday, as the state recovers from one of the worst droughts on record.
The restrictions will be replaced by Water Wise Guidelines.
Residents of the three regions can now use tap water on their gardens before 10am and after 4pm if using a hand held hose with a trigger nozzle, standard watering systems or supervised sprinklers.
Pools and spas can also now be topped up, cars washed, buildings cleaned and pets and humans cooled down with drinking water.
"People across greater Sydney have done an outstanding job during water restrictions, collectively saving 77 gigalitres of water - the equivalent of 31,000 Olympic-size swimming pools," Water Minister Melinda Pavey said in a statement.
The savings helped filtration plants in the area cope with demand, given lots of dam water was polluted with bushfire ash washed in by heavy rainfall, she says.
Warragamba is now 96.1 per cent full while the average across all Sydney dams is 93.5 per cent full.
But Ms Pavey is urging residents to remain water wise as conditions - and dam levels - can change quickly.
"The heatwave over the weekend meant 3.7 gigalitres of water was consumed Friday and Saturday, the most consumed over two days for 2020, a timely reminder how quickly dam levels can change," she said.
