The rain on the rooftops of the southern Illawarra on Wednesday night made a pleasant sound.
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It had seemingly been so long since we’d heard that sound. Alas it came and went very quickly.
The sound of the rain on the rooftops, apart from its soothing effect, reinforced just how dry it has been so far this winter in our region.
It is official that over 99% of New South Wales is experiencing drought and the less than one per cent remaining is not far off it.
In recent weeks we’ve brought you the stories of our local primary producers and the hardship they are going through so we decided to take a look at how our dam levels were faring.
The figures make for a pretty stark contrast.
As far as our dam levels go, it is a fairly dry argument in the Illawarra at the moment.
We compared some of the dam levels to the same time last year and what we found gave us a shock.
Cordeaux Dam for example was at 93.8% last year, but this year is at 41.9%.
The Cataract Dam, even worse.
It is currently at 37.8% after being 93.9% at the same time last year.
Incredible really.
While Sydney Water says there is no looming issues or mitigation measures being considered it does make you consider your own water use.
It also brings into full focus what the battle must be like for our farmers with empty dams and no feed for their starving cattle.
Farmers like Burrawang’s dairy farmer Craig Whatman are doing it real tough.
“We will run out of food by Friday. The cows are nearly 100kg underweight at the moment and producing about five litres less per day than the norm,” he said earlier this week.
They need rain and need it bad.
The situation is even worse when you consider he points out that this year’s problem means it will also be next year’s problem as well.
When Craig says his cows at Mayberry Farm “are crying” we believe him.