Toowoomba council lowers water restrictions across region after major rainfall event, 200L daily per person new target

After months being on tough water use rules, residents can now enjoy a bit more freedom after most communities were dropped to low-level restrictions. What it means for your family:

Toowoomba Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff.

Toowoomba residents will be able to use more water every day under changes to water restrictions, but the council says rules will still need to be enforced.

The council dropped the entire region from medium to low-level water restrictions, following a heavy rainfall event in February that filled all three of the region’s dams to above capacity.

Locals will be able to use up to 200 litres per person per day, while gardens and lawns can be watered before 10am and after 4pm every day except Monday.

Water and waste chair Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff said she appreciated the efforts by residents to conserve water during several years of lean rainfall in the catchment area.

“As water chair, there are not many feelings that feel much better than this,” she said.

“I actually really want to say thankyou to our community, because I couldn’t have asked any more from them.

“They have been so committed to conserving water.

“I really do have a lot of confidence and faith in the people of this region, and they know the deal, they know that we usually live in a time of little rainfall.”

But Ms Vonhoff said the residents could not expect the removal of restrictions completely until the region’s water security had been improved by further infrastructure projects.

“I can understand that people might think, our dams are full, can’t we just take away water restrictions entirely?” she said.

“The reality is we live in an area where we have perennial drought and we don’t take a move like this lightly.

“Water security is always at the top of the agenda, and I don’t think you go through what the Toowoomba region has gone through in the past decade-plus and not always constantly be thinking about water.

“You can’t get better than what we have right now, we also just have to remember that a lot of the water we use comes from aquifers, some of them recharge quickly, others recharge more slowly.”

Several communities, including Brookstead, Cambooya, Clifton, Greenmount, Nobby, Pittsworth, Southbrook and Vale View, remain on medium and high-level restrictions.

For details, head to the website on tr.qld.gov.au.