It could be several months before Canberrans will see the familiar sight of water spurting out of Lake Burley Griffin's iconic jet.
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The Captain Cook Memorial Jet is being turned off until further notice due to low water levels and high temperatures.
"Weather conditions and low inflows have affected lake levels, potentially risking damage to the pumps that operate the jet," a National Capital Authority spokeswoman said.
"We hope that conditions ease soon to give us all some relief and to assist our iconic water jet to become operational again very soon."
Supply to the lake comes from the waters of the Molonglo River between Scrivener Dam and the Dairy Road Bridge.
Months of significantly below average rainfall has caused lake inflows to drop to "almost nothing", National Capital Authority director of estate management Peter Beutel said.
Mr Beutel said evaporation also posed a problem.
"All we can do is dam the water of the Molonglo River and create the the lake but we can't put water into the lake. That requires rain and inflows from the catchment and unfortunately this season has been very dry," he said.
"Added to that because of the very long period of wind that we have seen over this spring/summer period and more recently the very hot days we've had, evaporation has been significant."
Water has dropped so low that it has caused the lake's aquatic plants to become visible. The lake capacity is 33 gigalitres, the volume currently sits at 29 gigalitres.
Mr Beutel said turning the jet off was a precautionary approach to ensure no significant damage was done to the pumps.
"Having the jet running doesn't adversely affect the lake but what can happen is as the water level comes down the surface level of the water gets closer to the intake pipe and potentially if it goes down far enough it could start sucking air out of the atmosphere," he said.
"Any air that gets into those pumps creates a cavitation that could do significant damage to parts of the jet."
The jet was forced out of action for more than four months last year. It closed in March 2019 due to technical difficulties.
The jet's control valve was replaced during the repairs.
Prior to that, the jet was closed for two years from 2015 to 2017 for a $3 million refurbishment.
The jet will turn 50 this year. It was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on April 25, 1970.