The smiles and cheers as Gladys Berejiklian made the announcement said it all.
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More than $25million gifted to the Bega Valley Shire Council so it can forge ahead with work to improve our drinking water.
It’s been a long time coming, and not for lack of complaints from right across the shire about poor quality water, brown baths, skin reactions, home filters used up well inside the supposed life. The message has been clear.
In the council’s defence, it’s not an easy fix. Particularly as none of the four water systems in the huge expanse of the Bega Valley have filtration systems so desperately needed.
To do so is a massive expense and therefore a huge influx of ratepayers money required.
We can’t imagine anyone would let a jump in water rates slide by without vocal objections – regardless of how much they wanted a clean glass of drinking water.
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So the big “thank you” to the NSW government from Mayor Kristy McBain on Wednesday is surely on behalf of all residents and ratepayers.
It means a filtration system for both the Brogo-Bermagui and Bega-Tathra water systems are essentially fully funded by the state government based on current estimates of construction costs. In turn, that means no need to raise rates by the council.
As it was a more immediate need, the filtration system for Bemboka is already underway and should be online by next year.
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But with the state’s input meaning the next two big projects can be brought well forward in council’s works schedule, it also brings the filtration of Kiah-Yellow Pinch that much closer – although still a fair way off for now.
One question remains unanswered – but we will do our best to get answers for you. Up until now we have been told the brown water many residents are having to put up with is at times the result of iron content in the water, at other times ageing pipes and infrastructure.
While filters at the source will be useful in preventing potential health issues due to rural runoff and iron deposits or similar, it doesn’t prevent discolouration if the issue is the pipes between the filter and our taps.
The $25million is a big step forward for this shire, but there’s still a long way to go to achieve something as basic as safe clean drinking water for all.