Combined water storage levels were at 78.7 per cent on Monday, down 1.1 per cent from last week. 

The region’s main drinking water source at Grahamstown stands at 77.1 per cent and the smaller Chichester Dam is at 90.9 per cent. 

While still relatively healthy, a Hunter Water spokeswoman cautioned against complacency.

“While this may appear reasonable, prolonged dry conditions mean our storages are significantly lower than they were this time last year,” she said.

“If we all reduce the amount of water we use now, we will preserve our supplies and give ourselves the best chance of avoiding restrictions, which commence at 60 per cent total storage.”

“Hunter Water would like to thank its customers for their efforts to conserve water as part of the Love Water campaign.”

Stage 1 restrictions, introduced at 60 per cent, would prohibit the use of fixed sprinklers and limit the use of hand held hosed. 

Stage 2 restrictions, introduced at 50 per cent, would limit the use of hand held hoses to two days a week.

Water Wise rules, introduced in 2014 as part of the Lower Hunter Water Plan, are credited with saving billions of litres of water a year across the region. 

The measures include limiting the use of sprinklers, irrigation systems and trigger nozzle hoses to before 10am and after 4pm.

Hosing hard surfaces such as concrete is also prohibited.

The Lower Hunter Water Plan also includes the provision to introduce temporary desalination should storage levels become critical.

Hunter Water applied to the Department of Planning late last year for approval to build a temporary “off the shelf” desalination plant at Belmont.

A spokeswoman said last week that approval was still pending. 

“While we have no plans to build the plant at this stage, Hunter Water needs to obtain planning approval now so our community does not face severe water shortages if the worst case scenario eventuates,” she said. 

“The trigger for building the plant is if water storage levels dropped to 35 per cent as a result of the region experiencing even less rainfall than the worst drought in recent history.”

If built, the plant would supply up to 15 million litres of water per day. 

“It would also only provide enough water for the Lower Hunter to get through a drought when water demand is severely restricted, and it is only a small portion of what the region would need under normal conditions,” the spokeswoman said.