WASHING cars at home is soon to be a thing of the past once level five water restrictions are introduced.
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Orange City Council sent out information on the change with the recent round of water bills, which will come into force once water storage hits 35 per cent.
As of Friday, it stood at 35.33 per cent.
Pete's Car Wash manager Daniel Neill said it would likely be a boon for the city's two car washes.
"When water restrictions come, we do get busier, which isn't a problem for us, we can handle it," he said.
Mr Neill said the business used treated bore water on the premises.
Along with car washing, filling water features and swimming pools will also be discontinued, while washing loads will be limited to full loads only.
Showers will be suggested at three minutes, or one shallow bath a day.
Restrictions brought in under level four, including not watering lawns, a half-hour hose limit on plants two nights a week and time limits on evaporative coolers, will remain in place.
Thomson's Garden Centre horticulturist Philip Keegan said sugarcane mulch was a good investment at this time of the year because it nourished the soil and retained water at the same time.
What you can and can't do under level five
- Lawn watering - not permitted
- Garden watering - permitted Wednesdays and Sundays between 6pm and 8pm using buckets, watering cans or a handheld hose for half an hour only.
- Showers - limited at three minutes
- Baths - shallow fill only
- Washing cars at home - not permitted
- Evaporative coolers - permitted 7am until midnight only
- Water features - not permitted
- Laying of new turf - not permitted
- Topping up swimming pools - not permitted
"It also stops the wind from drying off the top of the soil," he said.
He said customers had been mindful of buying drought-resistant plants, but it was also essential to ensure they were frost resistant as well, which made natives a good choice.
"You can't have one without the other in Orange," he said.
However, mayor Reg Kidd stressed residents had already been pulling their weight and water use per person per day was just 147 litres last week.
"That's 25 per cent under what we wanted to get," he said.
"We have the lowest consumption of potable water per person per day [against Bathurst and Dubbo]."
Cr Kidd said there was just below two years' worth of water left, assuming there was no rain.
"It's not like it's not going to rain again," he said.
He said a motion would be put forward at next week's council meeting to keep restrictions at level four, saying he believed the trigger points needed to be reviewed.
"They need to be a reflection of our consumptive pattern - our consumptive use is incredibly low and you don't get evaporation loss in winter," he said.
Businesses have needed to comply with their water saving action plans since level three restrictions came in.
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