A drought relief program allowing rural residents to take water from standpipes for free will end when level three restrictions are introduced by Dubbo Regional Council on October 1.
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The council's chief executive officer Michael McMahon said the decision had been "difficult" to make.
"The drought relief program has allowed many rural residents to access free water via standpipes in their local towns across the local government area," he said.
"This has helped many of our rural residents get through this trying time.
"Unfortunately there comes a time when we have to increase measures in the effort to secure the water supply for the entire Dubbo region."
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Mr McMahon said the relief program had been in place since July 2018.
Across 14 months it had provided more than 2,868,000 litres of free water to eligible rural residents within the LGA, he said.
Dubbo Regional Council voted to introduce level three restrictions on October 1 and level four restrictions on November 1 at its monthly meeting on Monday.
The move spelled the end of the drought support.
"Dubbo Regional Council's program to provide free access to water for approved residents affected by the drought is to discontinue when water restrictions exceed level two," Mr McMahon said.
"Therefore this initiative will discontinue as of Tuesday,1 October, 2019."
Mr McMahon said council staff were reaching out to affected customers.
"Drought relief water supply customers are eligible for a refund of their Avdata standpipe key via the customer service desks in Dubbo and Wellington," he said.
"Dubbo Regional Council staff are currently contacting the rural customers that have applied for the drought relief keys to communicate the changes."