It might be a speck on a map but smart water meter installers have their work cut out introducing the new technology to 4294 private and commercial properties in a zone covering downtown Dubbo.
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Across two weeks, they have worked in teams to fully replace 1061 old meters in central Dubbo and the central business district.
Dubbo Regional Council is replacing its "ageing water meter infrastructure" at a cost of about $5 million.
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The year-long project kicked off on June 1.
About 17,700 residential properties and 2300 businesses are getting the new technology.
Taggle Systems was awarded the contract to roll out the smart water meters by the council's chief executive officer Michael McMahon.
The council has divided the region into five zones for the rollout of the smart water meters and produced a map.
Zones 1 to 4 cover Dubbo and zone 5 "Wellington and surrounds".
This week a council spokeswoman said the smart water meters would be "rolled out in order" with zone 1 the first and zone five the last to get them.
"It is impractical to assign dates to the commencement of each zone due to influencing factors such as weather and property access which may delay the start and finish dates," she said.
The spokeswoman said the project was "running very smoothly", albeit for a "small number of informal complaints" of which most had been resolved through swift action by council staff.
She said the majority of old meters had been easy to access and in most cases replaced "in under 20 minutes".
"Contractors have had to make some arrangements with property owners who have had their meters secured, and also some businesses that were unable to have the water disrupted at the time," the spokeswoman said.
"Contractors have been very accommodating and working with businesses and property owners to organise a suitable time for replacement."
The spokeswoman said the installation of brand new V200HT 20 millimetre smart water meters in zone 1 would be completed in about two weeks.
She said the teams would then attend any properties in zone 1 which required a different kind of smart water meter and those they previously could not access.
The spokeswoman said the My DRC Water online customer portal was being trialled on council-owned assets and would become available to the public in "coming months".
It will allow residents to monitor their water usage.
The smart water meters will detect dials rotating and transmit readings to a database managed by the council.
