With the weather heating up, water use in Katherine has started to increase, which is to be expected – especially in the garden.

Power and Water’s Living Water Smart Program Manager, Jethro Laidlaw, says residents and businesses are doing a great job in mostly sticking to their allocated watering days and keeping average weekly water use under 10 million litres per day.

“However, people are still watering on Friday’s, which is the one day each week we ask that no one uses water outside. This enables us to save around five million litres of safe treated water each week, which can be stored in our tanks ready for use during the following week,” he said.

Over 50 per cent of average daily water use in Katherine is for irrigation. This can be reduced significantly by following some simple water saving tips in and around the garden.

These include:

• Mulch your garden beds to maintain soil moisture.
• Re-pot potted plants or top them up with potting mix and mulch around the top – this will keep plant roots cool and damp.
• Core and top dress your lawn to ensure water gets to and stays where it’s needed when watering.
• Water longer and less often to encourage hardy deep rooted plants more able to access moisture in the soil.

Finding and fixing leaks is another way of saving water.

“During our recent Community Leak Program where a team of leak checkers visited almost 2000 homes to check for signs of leaks, 276 leaks were found representing around 130 million litres of wasted water during one year. Since then plumbers providing the Leak Find and Fix rebate have found another 75 leaks, bringing the total found to 351. Over 100 have been fixed saving approximately 39 million litres of water over a year – that’s 164,000 wheelie bins,” Mr Laidlaw said.

"Please take advantage of our $200 Leak Find and Fix rebateto confirm, find and help fix a leak using one of our registered plumbers. You can find a plumber at livingwatersmart.com.au/katherine.

“The Katherine community has been fantastic in their efforts to reduce water use throughout the town and we need you to keep up the great work. The toughest time is ahead through the ‘build-up’ months of October to December when water use historically increases,” Mr Laidlaw said.

“Please continue to keep water use down so we can maintain minimal use of bore water. Only a small amount can be treated each day and it’s important we work together to keep our water sources safe and reliable.”

Preparation work is well underway in readiness for the delivery of the new water treatment plant. The first of the major components are due to be delivered in December.

This water treatment plant will be the first utility-scale plant of its kind using ion-exchange technology to treat a public water supply.

A scale model of the new treatment plant is on display at the Katherine Town Council offices.

Ends

Contact: Media unit
Phone: 0401 117 599