Dubbo's Drinking Water: Government to meet with council over water woes

With more wet weather on the way and no assurances Dubbo won't see more boil water alerts, the Daily Liberal reached out to a number government MPs about what was being done to prevent 43,000 people going without clean water again should there be another rain event like the one which saw over a month of boil water alerts in Dubbo.

Premier Perrottet told the Daily Liberal his government is "aware of the concerns in the Dubbo region around drinkable water" and would "work closely" with council to resolve issues.

"We have ensured all support is provided to the current Dubbo council and asked relevant Ministers to direct their agencies to do the same," he said.

Deputy Premier Toole said the local council is responsible for providing water services "appropriate to the current and future needs of the local community" but relevant government agencies would be meeting with the Dubbo Regional Council to discuss water worries "this week".

"NSW Health and the Department of Planning and Environment are working with Dubbo Regional Council to support it in reviewing its operations," he said in a statement.

"NSW Health and DPE are encouraging Dubbo Regional Council to take up offers to provide training for Dubbo councillors and staff on how best to manage the water treatment infrastructure."

Dubbo was placed on a boil water alert in July after the city's water treatment plant produced water above the 0.5 percent turbidity threshold for 10 hours.

Council flushed the system twice, but NSW Health imposed an even stricter 0.1 per cent threshold for old and new water coming in, which forced a long wait for drinkable water to again flow from household taps.

Last month, it was also revealed the local water supply had gone without fluoridation for the past three and a half years, unbeknownst to the public. This raised further questions about the management of water in Dubbo.

The Daily Liberal reached out to local member Dugald Saunders and government ministers including Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor, Minister for Planning Rob Stokes and Minister for Lands and Water Kevin Anderson about these issues.

The Premier, Deputy Premier and Mr Saunders responded.

READ ALSO

Mr Saunders echoed the Deputy Premier's assertion that local water management was a responsibility of council and pointed the blame for the issues at previous council management.

He said he has "every confidence" in the current council in being able to fulfil their obligations in future.

"Council is ultimately the utility manager responsible for ensuring safe and accessible drinking water for our community, and I've been in regular contact with council around these issues," said Mr Saunders.

"Of course, it was disappointing to learn that the former managers of Dubbo Regional Council had failed to alert the public or the relevant authorities about the lack of fluoridation in the town's water supply."

A spokesperson for Dubbo Council confirmed they would be having a "debrief" with government agencies about the boil water alerts and measures taken since "so all parties may learn and improve from shared information".

"Dubbo Regional Council, both during the Boil Water Alert and afterwards, maintains a collaborative relationship with the relevant agencies of government. This includes joined up sessions to work through the causes, changes to future operations, and ensures lessons learned are applied to local water utilities across the sector," the spokesperson said.

"As with many areas of responsibility, the community achieves better outcomes when agencies and Council collaborate; which is occurring in the DRC LGA."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: