“Five years ago, when we were in the midst of a terrible drought, ideas were brought to the table on how we could future proof ourselves for water preservation, but five years on nothing has changed,."

Bogan Shire Mayor Glenn Neill is the chair of the Alliance of Western Councils, who recently hosted a Roundtable on Water Security for Critical Human Needs at Narromine.

“Despite years of planning and the lessons from the worst drought in 130 years, water security for regional towns remains unfinished business," Mr Neill said.

"This discussion was about turning lived experience into action."

Key water authorities and regional leaders discussed the urgent need for secure and sustainable regional water supplies and the ways and means to make this happen.

Senior representatives attending were Mr Andrew McConville (Chief Executive, Murray–Darling Basin Authority), Mr Sean Sullivan (Deputy Secretary, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water), Mr Simon Banks (Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder), and representatives from the NSW Water Directorate.

“We had a good group of federal representatives and a couple from state who attended the meeting.," Mr Neill said.

"We had speakers from local councils who told of the issues we have had with water over the last few years and how it has directly affected families, businesses and Industries.

“Bogan Shire is in a good position with its off-river storage, and we have put money into the channel, but that doesn’t matter if there is no water in the Macquarie River system.

Bogan River Nyngan [Image Angie White]

“There was talk during the drought that Burrendong capacity was going to be increased, in what was deemed a relatively easy proposal, but this has never happened, and other suggestions never came to fruition either. So, what do we do next.

“Every community out here that you listen to all say the same, that we need to store more water when it is available.

“Unfortunately the people who actually live in these rural areas are not being listened to by the powers that be.

"Despite there being a lot of great ideas about how we can fix the situation, no one is willing to put them into action.

"In the end the people that will be hurt are those in rural Australia when we run out of water,” said Councillor Neill.

Alliance Chair and Bogan Shire Council Mayor, Glen Neill [Image Bogan Shire Council]

Warren Mayor Greg Whiteley says he is fired up about the issue and hopes that getting the problem in front of the appropriate authorities may move the process higher up the pile and finally give rural people a look in.

“Our aim for the meeting was to promote critical human needs for water use for towns and villages,” said Councillor Whiteley.

“Each town has different requirements. Bourke currently only has 88 days left in their weir pool, Warren was upset when the river stopped flowing in 2018/19 and Nyngan and Narromine both have issues along with all the villages.

“We discussed infrastructure and the expense of water and sewerage systems in our region and considering how expensive all of that is, we talked about how Councils could afford to pay for this sort of work."

Warren Mayor Greg Whiteley [Image Coonamble Times]

Mr Whitely says, overall it was a productive day.

“What comes of the day, we are all a bit unsure, but we are hoping that Burrendong capacity is increased by at least 20%, to provide us with an extra year of critical needs water supply.

“At the moment in the water sharing plan, critical water needs are guaranteed for two years, another 200 gigalitres of extra storage at Burrendong would give a third year of supply.

“There is no use talking about this problem when the drought is on, we need to prepare and be organised now, to safe proof us for the future.

“We recently had a demographer out from Melbourne, one of the best in Australia, who gave us some interesting facts.

"People in Nyngan, Warren and Narromine shire, purely based on agricultural production alone, not inclusive of mining, are producing double the average gross domestic product.

"Add in the mining contribution from Cobar and Nyngan and that blows the figures out once again, so rural Australia is more than pulling its weight.

“Our local members Roy Butler and Jamie Chaffey, are doing a great job, but they are looking after nearly half of the state, a huge job, and this adds to the frustration that we are not being looked after out here, considering the important part we play in Australia’s economy."