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The Macquarie to Orange Pipeline and Orange City Council’s stormwater harvesting scheme have added about two months’ worth of water supply to Suma Park Dam in the last six months.

From October through to March the two systems combined added more than 790 ML of water.

Based on the city’s current water use that equates to about 54 days of supply.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said the two systems combined had made a significant impact to our water reserves over the last couple of years.

“When there are good flows in the Macquarie River we can pump to increase what’s in our own storage.

“It hasn’t rained much lately and we haven’t used the Pipeline consistently, but we certainly have been over the last couple of years to keep our supply topped up.

“Without the pipeline adding to our supply and our award-winning stormwater harvesting system, we might have been in a precarious situation in terms of water supply right now.

“As it stands we have 39 per cent storage in our dams and with everyone contributing to water saving measures that will see us through.

“I would hate to think what we might be looking at if we hadn’t been topping up our supply all this time.”

Cr Kidd congratulated the city’s residents on adapting to level 4 water restrictions.

“Orange is a leader in the state when it comes to water saving measures,” Cr Kidd said.

“Orange residents have always been responsible when it comes to water use.”