Lately, though, Sydney's water usage for the first 10 months of year was down about six per cent from a year earlier. In October, demand fell 9.5 per cent compared with a year ago, indicating consumers were responding to the restrictions and public awareness campaigns to save water. The government predicts level 2 water restrictions will be needed in early February when dam levels are expected to drop to 40 per cent. Warragamba Dam's storage fell below 50 per cent earlier this year. Credit:Wolter Peeters Sydney Water's revised submission to IPART has asked the pricing regulator for increases and a 20 per cent increase in capital spending to $11.4 billion from 2020 to 2024 to respond to the drought and for new infrastructure. Sydney Water's initial submission would have reduced prices but managing director Roch Cheroux said the utility now had "more certainty of drought conditions" from 2020 to 2024 than it did six months ago.

"We need to ensure that we have enough funding to respond to drought and improve our water resilience for our customers and our city," Mr Cheroux said. "Some of our additional expenditure will improve system resilience for the longer term ... Other expenditure will only be needed while drought conditions continue." Loading Sydney Water said its proposed increased spending reflected that "dry conditions and drought may also be ongoing impacts of climate change, not just temporary aberrations". It said 38 per cent of Sydney's population knew the city was in a drought earlier this year. Awareness had risen to 78 per cent, but Sydney Water said it needed to do more to increase water efficiency. Although a typical household bill would be 2.5 per cent higher under the latest submission, customers could cut bills by saving water. Using 20 per cent less water would save $100 a year.

But despite a recent increase in usage, the Berejiklian government says Sydneysiders are using less water per person each day than they were during the Millennium drought. The WaterNSW plan shows at the height of that drought between 2001 and 2003, Sydneysiders were using 250 litres of water per person per day. Water Minister Melinda Pavey said Sydneysiders had changed their ways since the last drought. “The people of Sydney are responding to one of the worst droughts on record by reducing their consumption, but there is more to do," Ms Pavey said. “Sydney is not immune from the drought, with 99 per cent of the state now affected and some regional communities facing up to level 4 and 5 water restrictions."

A spokesman for Ms Pavey said the increased water usage was because of the "extraordinary dry and warm conditions experienced recently – especially when compared with the five-year average, which included wetter periods". Loading The WaterNSW plan said while there have been "isolated rainfall events", recent conditions have quickly dried out Sydney's catchments. It says rainfall across the catchments over the past two years was "below to very much below average" and the Bureau of Meteorology predicts a dryer and warmer than average summer. "Despite some water being available for Shoalhaven transfers and the Sydney Desalination Plant being online, there has been a gradual decline in storage levels and drought conditions remain throughout the Sydney catchments," the plan says.