Dubbo residents told to boil tap water amid contamination fears

Residents in a regional town are facing shortages of bottled water, after a contamination warning was issued in the aftermath of the floods.

Residents in a regional NSW town have been warned of contamination fears in their tap water due to a recent bout of torrential rainfall.

Poor water quality as a result of flooding from the Macquarie River has caused issues at the Dubbo Water Treatment Plant, with questions raised over the safety of the town’s drinking water.

In response, people have been advised by the Dubbo Regional Council to bring their tap water to a rolling boil before consumption, with the announcement affecting around 43,000 people. While the boil alert has been in place since 8am, July 7, locals say the order has now prompted a shortage in bottled water.

BOIL WATER ALERT – DUBBO
Thursday 7 July, 8:00am

Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) has issued a BOIL WATER alert for properties connected to town water in Dubbo. This covers the areas of Dubbo, Firgrove, Wongarbon, Eumungerie, Ballimore, Mogriguy, and Brocklehurst. pic.twitter.com/N4ClvBZTAv

— Mathew Dickerson (@MathewDickerson) July 6, 2022

A TikTok user, Emma Debus, documented her experience while on a trip to Dubbo visiting family from Sydney.

“I just arrived in Dubbo and my brother has informed me that the water has been contaminated due to flooding around the area so you either have to boil water or drink bottled water otherwise you get Bali belly equivalent due to bacteria,” she said in a TikTok video.

“This is what the water shelves look like in the supermarket at the moment, so it looks like we’re boiling water,” she continued, panning her camera across multiple empty supermarket shelves.

TikTok star, Emma Debus said bottled water was sold out at the local supermarket. Picture: TikTok @emdeebs.

The shelves had been stripped bare. Picture: TikTok @emdeebs.

Dubbo Regional Council Mayor Mathew Dickerson told the ABC on Wednesday the recent flooding had badly contaminated the river the town’s drinking water is sourced from.

“When you get that type opf flood event, you’re dragging a lot of a debris from the sides of the river down into the water stream,” he said.

“You’ve got fecal matter from animals, you’ve got carcasses from animals, and there’s probably more of that debris on the side of the river because of the drought we had a couple of years ago, so more animals might have died during that process.”

As it stands, the warning has been issued for properties connected to the town water in Dubbo, as well as the neighbouring areas of Firgrove, Wongarbon, Eumungerie, Ballimore, Mogriguy, and Brocklehurst, however authorities stress the risk of becoming ill is low.

“If you begin to have fever, diarrhoea or vomiting you should seek medical attention,” the Dubbo Regional Council advises.

“Advise your health care practitioner that you have consumed tap water during the Boil Water Alert.”

At the time of issuing, the notice said the alert would be in place for “at least seven days,” and it still remains in place.

Dubbo Regional Council Mayor Mathew Dickerson (left) feared the extreme bouts of weather would be more frequent due to climate change. Picture: Facebook/ Mathew Dickerson.

Speaking to the The Guardian, Mayor Dickerson said recent events highlighted the need for Dubbo’s water infrastructure to become more resilient towards climate change.

“As we get to those extremes with drought and flood or rain, I think we will see more resilience need to be built into water treatment plants across the state, because this is relative to our life going forward,” he said.

“So we’ve got to work out going forward how many times it’s going to happen again, and how we can get that water treatment process to a level that it can be more resilient.”