For the past few days, Australians have experienced some of the worst bush fires the country has ever seen.
Even though residents are well-aware of bushfires throughout the years, as Australia has experienced countless bushfires in the past, residents have described the fires as something they’ve never experienced before. It has become so bad that firefighters have asked residents to be prepared as they won’t be able to help everyone, should fires enter suburbs.
So far, four people have died due to the fires, and fires persist. Now, Sydney faces a warning that its dams could run out by the year 2022, which is an issue escalated by the bushfires. These fires are not only surrounding Sydney but also all over Australia. However, Sydney is facing the worst crisis, which is now accompanied by a lack of enough water for residents in the next few years.
Since June, Sydney has already experienced level 1 water restrictions. Residents have been urged to limit their daily water usage and refrain from filling their pools, as well as running hoses or watering their gardens too often. These restrictions have seemed quite strange to residents, particularly because they haven’t experienced water restrictions since 2003 for a drought that lasted up until 2009.
Dam Levels Cannot Drop Any Further
Since Sydney has 5 million residents, it has quite a high demand for water usage. Already, Sydney only has a 46.6% dam capacity. Given the raging fires, the NSW water authority has predicted that it is yet to hit 40%, which could activate level 2 water restrictions. Should dam levels continue to drop, level 2 is set to be implemented by February or March 2020. These restrictions will limit the use of water in residents’ daily operations even more.
