We've woken this morning to see steady light rain here on the eastern seaboard. Oh, it feels good! But it's not enough to solve the problem, unfortunately, and in the interior especially, things are grim.
Here's this morning's news on Channel Nine:
| 10:47 AEST Tue 10 Dec 2002 | |||||
| Nine towns in rural NSW run dry Nine towns in central and far western NSW and the far north coast have run out of water, the state government has revealed. Land and Water Conservation Minister John Aquilina said five towns were now relying totally on water carting at a cost of $5,000 a week each, while supplies in a further four also had run dry. Releasing the latest town water supply figures, Mr Aquilina said almost all of regional NSW was under some level of water restrictions. "Five towns in the central west - Bigga, Bimbi, Burcher, Caragabal and Fifield - are relying totally on water carting," Mr Aquilina said in a statement. "Supplies have failed in Grawin, near Walgett, Milparinka and Tibooburra in the far west and in Tyalgum on the far north coast.
 "Water carting is now in operation at some level in 21 towns across the state."A further seven towns are expected to require carting within the next few weeks." Rain falls of 50mm across the NSW east coast over the past 10 days had provided some short-term relief to the mid-north coast areas, Mr Aquilina said. Supplies in Barrington and Gloucester have improved but with 99 per cent of the state now drought-affected up to 30 towns risk running out of water. Among these are Binnaway, Comboyne, Coonabarabran, Emmaville, Gunning, Sofala and Telegraph Point. "The systems causing most concern are those on the north coast north of the Hunter, the towns of the Barwon/Darling river system, Parkes, Goulburn and the Eurobodalla Shire on the far south coast," Mr Aquilina said. Storage levels at the 20 major dams and reservoirs in NSW were sufficient but some dams were down to critical levels, he said. The latest regional water supply figures follow repeated warnings from Premier Bob Carr that water restrictions for Sydney, the Illawarra and Blue Mountains were inevitable before Christmas. Cheers, Ozzie | |||||
