Water quality experts partner with Murrumbidgee Council

“WaterNSW is a national leader in the water sector, operating most of the large dams in NSW and protecting the health of the drinking water catchment that supplies the more than 5 million people of Greater Sydney,” WaterNSW Executive Manager Strategy and Performance, Fiona Smith, said.

“One of the big lessons from the most recent drought is the water sector must collaborate more closely to build expertise and provide better access to niche skills outside normal local government functions.

“Some of those niche but critically important functions include catchment management and better ways to monitor and reduce risks at the source of water used in local town water supplies.

“This is why our experts are well placed to help councils identify risks and fast track improvements to source water quality under the NSW Government’s Town Water Risk Reduction Program (TWRRP) which is an initiative of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).

“The site visits to key source water locations at Jerilderie, Coleambally and Darlington Point are the next steps in our partnership with Murrumbidgee Council,” Fiona said.

Murrumbidgee was one of six regional councils that helped WaterNSW pilot phase one of the TWRRP in 2022.

“We’re delighted to again have our team working alongside Council water managers on opportunities to enhance the management of source water quality to ultimately reduce risk to drinking water supplies,” Fiona said.

Source water quality is a critical part of the multi-barrier approach to address risks to water quality throughout the whole of the water supply chain, from the raw water source in the catchment, water storages and transfer systems through to treatment plants and delivery systems to customers’ taps.

“The multi-barrier approach recognises that while each individual barrier may not be able to completely remove or prevent contamination all of the time, they collectively provide greater assurance that the water supply will be safe,” Fiona said.

The TWRRP brings the strengths of major entities in the water sector, like WaterNSW, to local councils, to provide extra support to help improve water security, quality and reliability by enabling them to tap into the skills and knowledge that will best assist them.

WaterNSW has received NSW Government funding under the TWRRP to work with councils on dam safety risk assessments and to help improve the monitoring of raw water quality. Under the program, DCCEEW provides ongoing support and expertise, free of charge to Councils, to improve water treatment including providing training to water operators and funding to Councils to carry out upgrades to plants.