Rogue watering is a term used in a Mount Isa City Council press release to describe local residents watering outside their permitted hours. 

On Monday Mount Isa’s maximum temperature was 36.4 Celsius, almost two degrees warmer than any other day this month. 

But with temperature increases, so has the city’s water use. 

This week it almost matched the Mount Isa Water Board’s daily filtration capacity of 22.5 Mega Litres. 

Mount Isa Mayor Tony McGrady said council employees were patrolling out-of-hours watering of residents. 

There were many residents complaining against their neighbours, he said. 

“Judging by the amount of complaints we have coming in from neighbours and fellow residents, the fines will keep being issued until the message gets through,” Councillor McGrady said. 

The half empty Lake Moondarra emphasised the city’s need to be careful with water. 

“If we cannot encourage people to abide by the restrictions, the council will be forced to discuss stricter measures, which could include moving towards level three restrictions,” Cr McGrady said. 

”The majority of people are doing the right thing, but the fact is that we are still officially in drought and the lake levels continue to fall.”

The spike in water levels increased to above 20 Mega Litres a day.

In early June the city’s  daily water use was about 17 Mega Litres, but Cr McGrady said daily use could be as low as 14. 

The spike was unsustainable for the city, the mayor said. 

Cr Kim Coghlan, the council’s chair of sport and beautification, said residents were in a situation where they all needed to keep to their water use. 

“If everyone does the right thing, we will get through this. 

“You cannot leave sprinklers on for hours and hours and hours and think it is not going to make a difference.” 

Mount Isa Water Board’s figures said the city’s water source, Lake Moondarra, was at 49.5 per cent capacity as of October 9. 

Level two water restrictions mean that houses can use sprinklers from 6am to 8am, and 8pm to 10pm on alternate days.