Hunter Water is hoping the forecast rain is enough to top up the region’s dam levels, which are at their lowest point in almost seven years.
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The Hunter’s total storage was 75.3 per cent of its capacity as of Friday, the lowest it has been since May 2010.
Chichester Dam has dipped to 52.7 per cent, with 2014 the only other year the Dungog dam has been so low in the past decade.
Dam levels across the Hunter have gradually decreased since August 2016 as the region has sweltered through hot, dry conditions.
The scorching hot weekend of February 11 and 12, where temperatures reached more than 45 degrees, had a significant impact on the levels.
From February 10 to 13, total water storage dropped from 77.4 per cent to 76.9 per cent, which equated to 1.3 billion litres lost or 541 Olympic swimming pools.
Hunter Water spokesperson Nick Kaiser said hot, dry weather had a “double whammy effect” as it not only meant the dams were not refilled, but also that people were using more water.
But it wasn’t too much cause for concern, Mr Kaiser said.
He said even though the temperatures have been exceedingly high, the little bits of rain in between the warm, dry days were enough to keep water usage at a reasonable rate.
The Hunter’s average water usage is about 184 million litres per day. During a long dry stretch in 2014 that shot up to 300 million, and over recent weeks it reached 280 million.
However no water restrictions have been put in place in the Hunter since the 1990’s.
Grahamstown Dam, which is about 10 times the size of Chichester, sat at 80.6 per cent of its total capacity on Friday.
Mr Kaiser said the larger dam was being used to supply water to the areas normally serviced by Chichester.
“It helps to slow down that amount of depletion,” he said.
Mr Kaiser said the rain across the past few days should have helped the dam levels.
Rain has also been forecast for the rest of this week, which Mr Kaiser said should also help bring things back up.
“Virtually every day for the next week there should be some kind of rain, which is a good sign,” he said.
“But it has to be consistent rainfall, not just a downpour here and there. It’s important that it falls in the right places.”
In the long term, Mr Kaiser said average rainfall across the winter months should be enough to “really recharge the storages” heading into the warmer months.
He said Hunter Water encouraged people to be mindful of their water usage all year, not just in summer.