Dubbo cops a spray in water war

Dubbo residents have been accused of being more worried about their lawns than conserving supplies.

Burrendong Dam is at 3.7 per cent of capacity and expected to run dry by May. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Residents of Dubbo have been ­labelled reckless and accused of being more worried about watering their lawns than conserving the drought-ravaged region’s dwindling supplies.

A water war has erupted ­between the city in central NSW and its surrounding villages, which all rely on the same rapidly diminishing ­reserves in Burrendong Dam, ­already at 3.7 per cent of capacity and expected to run dry by May.

Even though they missed out on much of the weekend’s deluge, receiving only 15mm of rain, Dubbo’s 40,000 residents are so adamant they need greater freedom to water their lawns that the city’s council has voted to relax its level-four restrictions, three days after they were introduced.

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The decision has sparked fierce criticism in neighbouring villages, with Cobar Mayor Lil­liane Brady calling the city’s councillors gutless and accusing them of refusing to take their ­responsibility to conserve water seriously.

“They’ve got no guts,” she told The Australian. “Dubbo councillors are a bit weak on this. It was unwise to do what they did.”

Ms Brady called on NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey to step in to safeguard the region’s limited supply: “The state government needs to take control of this. She (Ms Pavey) needs to come down harder on Dubbo, and she needed to do it six months ago. Dubbo have got to get their act together and be singing the same song as the other councils.”

Warren Shire Council Mayor Milton Quigley accused Dubbo of putting its head in the sand. “The message should be: ‘Let’s conserve this water for as long as we possibly can’,” he said.

“We’re all in the same boat (relying on the dam) — it would be nice to think ­everyone is heading in the same direction.

“We can’t send the message that turning on a tap and ­expecting water to appear is ­always going to occur because it won’t.”

Ms Pavey was not available for comment last night, but has previously been vocal about the need for action.

Dubbo’s council voted to adopt level-three water limit­ations only after she threatened to force the town on to tighter ­restrictions, and it introduced level-four restrictions only last weekend.

Ray Donald, the Mayor of Bogan Shire, which is also reliant on the Burrendong Dam, said all councils in the region needed to work together if they were to make it through the drought.

“I would certainly hope, as a council downstream from Dubbo, that they would make sure their actions are responsible, and they were well aware of the amount of water left in Burrendong Dam and when it will run out,” he said.

Dubbo council’s Deputy Mayor, Stephen Lawrence, said the city’s level-four restrictions were still “undeniably very strict”, even as its water ­consumption targets per resident have also been loosened by 30 litres to 280l a day. 

“These new restrictions cannot be described as lax in anyway. As a local council, we have to strike a balance for residents,” Mr Lawrence said.

He said Dubbo used “a tiny amount of the water that comes out of Burrendong Dam” and “much more” was used by commercial and agricultural licensees.

He conceded the city could be forced to rely on underground bores as soon as May.