Gold Coast Mayor wants to ease water restrictions ...

With Hinze Dam at 100% and overflowing, the Gold Coast Mayor wants to ditch SEQ water restrictions and let people water their lawns.

Excerpt from the Australian:

Call to ease water curbs as dams fill

9 January 2008

Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke has urged the Queensland Government to ease water restrictions on the coast, partly to counter the possibility of flood damage this weekend.

The coast's main water storage, the Hinze Dam, has been overflowing for the past two days in the wake of the same weather system that triggered flooding across the border in NSW.

There was little rain yesterday, but more falls are forecast for this weekend. Despite the copious flow of water, the Gold Coast, like the rest of southeast Queensland, is still on level six water restrictions, which only allow watering of gardens with a bucket on alternate days between 4pm and 7pm. Mr Clarke has called for the state Government to put the Gold Coast on level three restrictions.

He said yesterday that while the possibility of rising floodwaters damaging low-lying parts of the coast such as the canal estates was "remote", it had to be taken seriously.

But he said he saw little need for tight restriction on the coast. "It just seems a bit silly at the moment," he said. "Everyone's been tightening their belt and cutting back on the water they use in a very responsible way, but at the moment there's water all around us.

"I don't think it would be too much to allow Gold Coasters to water their gardens or let us have showers at the beach."

Hinze Dam was at about 60per cent capacity last week but nearly 400mm of rain on the weekend pushed it to more than 100 per cent two days ago and it has stayed that way since.

See - Hinze Dam full.