The late start to summer has been welcomed with open arms by West Busselton resident Karen Hann who is making sure every little drop counts this hot season.
Ms Hann has recently revamped her front garden – swapping roses to native tucker – and reducing her watering times from 15 minutes to just six in the process.
“I did love my roses, but I’m a stickler for saving water so it only seemed right to replace the front garden with a native one,” she said.
“It was a natural ‘next step’ for us too. We hate wasting water – for years we’ve been using waterwise shower heads, we turn taps off when we brush our teeth and we’ve been collecting the cold water in a bucket while waiting for the shower to warm up.”
Busselton Water chief executive officer Chris Elliott congratulated Ms Hann and her family on doing everything they could to reduce their water usage and said it was important for the community to consider their water practices all year round, but especially during these summer months.
“Based on previous summer water usage and production across the Busselton area, we’re expecting close to 20,000 kilolitres will be used each day this summer. That equates to eight Olympic sized swimming pools,” he said.
“Climate change is also an impacting factor, so as a community we need to do what we can to preserve our local water supply – making sure every drop of water we use counts.
“From planting a native garden, going to the beach instead of having a backyard water fight and having a shorter shower – you can do your part to make sure the little drops count.”
To protect Busselton’s water supply, the state-wide two-day sprinkler roster is in place over the summer and on allocated days, sprinklers and reticulation should be set to only water once – either before 9am or after 6pm – or households could risk a fine.
To calculate your watering days, look for the last digit of your house number on the roster.
The sprinkler roster can be found at busseltonwater.wa.gov.au.