Dubbo residents woke up to a 'boil water' alert from council on Wednesday 7 July, which is expected to last for a week. Caused by recent floods, this meant town water was not safe to drink without first boiling or decontaminating, leading many to rush out and buy as up much bottled water as they could, leaving store shelves empty.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With the effects of climate change being seen more regularly, what can Dubbo do to prepare for a future where flooding is more common?
Murray Wood, Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) CEO said council will look into measures to better prepare for floods in the future.
"Due to certain impacts of climate change, for example recent intense droughts and floods, DRC staff will be investigating measures and upgrades to its water treatment plants to be more resilient to such environmental factors," he said.
Dubbo council mayor Mathew Dickerson said any upgrades to water treatment in Dubbo must be cost-effective.
"The thing you always try and do with every function of council is do it to a standard that is a an acceptable standard without spending more money than you need to," Cr Dickerson said.
"So you can have treatment plants that take raw sewerage and out the other end comes clean drinking water, but that takes more cost in the initial infrastructure and more cost to run it than if you've got water at a better level to begin with.
Also making news in Dubbo
"What we've got to do is get to the point where we can have the water treated still without being ridiculously expensive - have the water treated to a level that can handle the next water event, the next rain event and let's face it, we're going to have more of these events so we need to make sure we can handle that."
Mr Wood and Cr Dickerson said the week-long enforcement of the boil water alert is put in place to give workers time to correctly test and address the issues.
"It's not the first flood we've had, in every flood you'll get lots of things sitting around on the riverbanks... That can be sticks and branches and those sorts of things but they can also be cow pats, feces from animals, it could be dead animals. All those things get swept down and mixed up in the water," Cr Dickerson said.
"Council staff are readjusting the chemical dosing levels in an effort to combat the poor water quality. Once staff establish the correct levels of dosing based on the current condition of the river water required they will be treating the water appropriately," Mr Wood said.
"The water treatment plant and all water storage facilities must be cleared from any unsafe water before a boil water alert can be lifted by NSW Health.
"The Dubbo Water Treatment Plant is currently producing approximately 10 Mega Litres (ML) a day and a minimum of 80 ML is required to provide an adequate supply to the city of Dubbo and outlying areas. Community safety is the highest priority for Council and NSW Health, therefore a seven day estimate has been provided to allow the unsafe water to be cleared from the treatment plant and storage."
