Bubblers Miss Blitz On Water
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday October 25, 2003
BUBBLERS may soon be the only water freely available outside as beach showers and then taps are progressively disabled to save water.
Water restrictions will start to bite from next Saturday when anyone who uses a hose on their car or other hard surface or who uses sprinklers and watering systems will risk a fine of $220.
Plumbers are starting from Wollongong's northern suburbs and working south to Windang to turn off all 69 outside beach showers.
Those will be followed by any taps that do not already have vandal-proof faucets but not the few bubblers in the city, according to Andrew Stratford, manager of recreation and natural resources at Wollongong City Council.
``There are only a few bubblers around and most of those have spring-loaded taps," he said.
``But one dripping tap generates quite a number of phone calls and quite a large amount of public concern."
Also generating public concern is the amount of water leaking from Sydney Water's pipes, put by the Australian Services Union at 94 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water each day.
Union organiser John Tierney said the Illawarra had 30 full-time workers and not one of them worked on leak detection.
``We need extra workers and we need them now," he said.
Figures released yesterday by the Sydney Catchment Authority show the Avon Dam near Bargo, which feeds the Illawarra, fell 0.5 per cent last week to 54.5 per cent capacity.
This compares to 57 per cent capacity at Warragamba Dam, which feeds Sydney.
However, an authority spokeswoman said water from the Nepean Dam and the Shoalhaven River was used to feed Avon when necessary so the figure did not represent the region's full reserves.
Leaks from Illawarra pipes were well below the 10.5 per cent average, a Sydney Water spokesman said, which was why the region was last on a six-year leak reduction program on the 21,000km of pipes in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra.
He said Illawarra pipes were not as old as those elsewhere and were mostly laid through sand, which - unlike Sydney's clay - did not shrink in times of drought and distort pipes, causing leaks.
Contractors are not due to start leak reduction in the Illawarra for 18 months.
© 2003 Illawarra Mercury
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