Water NSW has partnered 12 local water utilities (LWU) across regional NSW to monitor water sources, establishing baseline water quality to help communities improve knowledge and management of drinking water supplies.
Among the 12 LWUs was the Gwydir Shire, with Water NSW Executive Manager Strategy and Performance, Fiona Smith saying each month an analysis of the water samples collected from local reservoirs and rivers upstream of water treatment plants will give information to each participating council to provide an understanding of current issues in the source water and inform any management action.
Collecting and reporting on local source water quality samples is the next step in WaterNSW’s ongoing partnership with the 12 councils who are part of source water quality stream of the NSW Government’s Town Water Risk Reduction Program, an initiative of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
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.
