The gardening and irrigation industries in Australia say up to 6,000 jobs have been lost because of water restrictions in several states.
Some nursery operators have lost more than 30 percent of their turnover and they say it is the worst downturn in memory.
With many dams across Australia down to 30 to 40 percent of capacity, state and local governments say they do not have a choice but to implement water restrictions.
Sydney is already on level three water restrictions and Brisbane is about to do the same.
Brisbane gardeners will only be able to water with buckets or watering cans from next week.
But Jolyon Burnett, from the Irrigation Association of Australia, says the banning of sprinkler systems is hurting the industry.
"We estimate that turnover across the board is probably down somewhere between 30 and 40 percent," he says. "We're seeing some 6,000 job losses across the entire green industry, both full and part-time."
Tom Swift has been installing irrigation systems for 30 years and says the introduction of water restrictions has cut his turnover by more than a third.
"I'm just hanging in there to be honest, and trying to make the most of a much smaller business than what I had before," he says.
The Federal Government's water spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says there is no need for long-term restrictions and he is calling on the states to stop using water utilities as cash cows.
"We can have as much water as we need," he says. "There is ample scope for augmenting or increasing the water supply in our big cities. We don't have to build pipelines across Australia, we don't even have to build new dams.
"There is more than enough water that can be won from recycling and better use of waste water and storm water."
The states say the Federal Government should increase its own spending on water management.