Dubbo Regional Council has received $1 million through the federal government’s Drought Communities Program Grant.

There will be $560,000 spent on a water supply for Stuart Town, $245,000 for a public toilet in Church Street and another $195,000 for shade sails at the Dubbo Regional Livestock Markets.

Council will install a bore and storage tank for residents in Stuart Town to fill portable tanks with water. The water cannot be used for drinking, but will prevent residents using their current drinking water for other purposes.

Stuart Town and Mumbil are not connected to the Dubbo water supply.

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Councillor Vicki Etheridge said a lot of people would benefit from the Drought Communities Program Grant.

“It’s been a long time coming for those people out there, they haven’t had decent water in years, I’m really thrilled about that,” she said.

“These projects are things that should have done but maybe in the past we didn’t have the money for, now everybody gets their share.”

The public toilet to be installed in Church Street will be disability friendly, and will prevent people from relying on the toilets in the shopping centres.

Mayor Ben Shields said he was particularly pleased with the toilet facility.

“That has been complained about for ever and a day, ever since I’ve been on council, last century, that there are non-adequate facilities in Macquarie Street,” Cr Shields said.

“[The new facilities] will further enhance the growth and the destination of Macquarie Street, making it further able to compete with other retail areas not just in Dubbo but around western NSW.”

However, while Cr Shields thanked federal politicians Mark Coulton and Andrew Gee, he said the region should have been given additional funding.

“If Dubbo didn’t merge with Wellington back in 2016 the people of Dubbo and Wellington would have got $2 million. The community of Dubbo, our 52,000 people is missing $1 million for no other reason than we merged,” he said.

Cr Shields said the methodology of the grants need to be considered when the Dubbo region with 52,000 received $1 million, as did the smaller towns of Gilgandra and Narromine which had a much smaller population.

Grants went to 81 councils in drought.