Kempsey Shire Council Infrastructure Services director Robert Scott told The Macleay Argus that following high rainfall over the past month, the council had decided not to put water restrictions in place.

“The recent rain has given us a timely reprieve because we were virtually on the cusp of implementing water restrictions,” Mr Scott said.

“We were really close to having restrictions and we probably should have as our river flows were well and truly down to around and below 100 megalitres a day, which is getting quite low.  

“It is normally low at this time of the year as it is generally drier through November and December, and it was certainly very low and we were looking at water restrictions being in place.  

“However, the rain across the catchment area during December has been between 30mm and 135mm, with an average of 50mm to 70mm a day.

Mr Scott said the rain had been a welcome and the rivers were looking really healthy.

“The flow in the river has increased from 100 megalitres per day earlier in the month to a flow of 718 megalitres per day just last week, and it is still going up quite quickly,” Mr Scott said.

“We expect the recent rains will provide some good flows in the river for some time and it will be a case of the council monitoring the conditions over the next couple of weeks and seeing what impact that has before we decide to implement water restrictions in the future.”

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting much lower to nil rainfalls for the rest of December and over January in the Macleay region.