Lithgow City Council last week defended its decision to have no water restrictions, criticising its neighbours for not taking enough water precautions before the drought hit.

Then this week, Dubbo Regional Council maintained its level four restrictions, but increased the daily water usage per person from 245 litres to 280 litres and allowed people to water their lawns in the wake of weekend rain.

Last week, Orange residents averaged 135 litres - the city has been in level five restrictions for a month and has not been allowed to water lawns since April.

Orange mayor Reg Kidd labelled Dubbo's move "disgraceful".

"When I heard that, I thought, 'what the bloody hell are they doing?'" he said.

"What sort of message is that sending to everybody?

"The level of the Macquarie shouldn't be the trigger point we use when there's other people down that river that are trucking water in."

Cr Kidd pointed out the weekend rain was not enough for Orange council to pump from the Macquarie River pipeline.

Cr Kidd said Orange had done everything it could since the past drought, including the pipeline, stormwater harvesting system and raising the Suma Park Dam wall.

"The government is supporting us because we're doing the right thing while other councils are being pushed into it," he said.

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