TALKS between Bathurst Regional Council and the Minister for Water will revolve around funding for short term water security projects.
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Mayor Bobby Bourke, along with council's general manager, Engineering Services director and a consultant, will meet with Melinda Pavey on Wednesday.
On the agenda will be discussions about stormwater harvesting, upgrading the Winburndale pipeline and the installation of meters on local rivers to monitor irrigator water usage.
Cr Bourke said he also planned to discuss the situation irrigators are facing, to ensure they do get a water allocation from Chifley Dam.
Following discussions with the irrigators, council has recommended to the NSW Government that this allocation be 20 per cent of the usual amount.
In early October, Cr Bourke called upon his colleagues to collaborate with him ahead of the meeting so he could take their concerns and questions with him to the meeting with Ms Pavey, which they have.
"We had a meeting with councillors last Thursday night and John Fry has got a few reasonable questions to ask, and I've asked them to refer some questions to the director of Engineering," Cr Bourke said.
"It has to be a team effort. I've done my best to get the councillors involved."
Cr Bourke said the key aims of the meeting with Ms Pavey were to get more funding for water security projects and to cut some of the red tape council is facing.
He's feeling confident of a positive outcome.
"I'm getting the message into the ministers, I just hope that this minister gets the message," Cr Bourke said.
"I am feeling confident, because she is a regional sort of person."
Some residents think that council isn't working on long spoken about projects, like the Chifley Dam pipeline.
Cr Bourke said these projects hadn't been abandoned. Short-term projects, like stormwater harvesting, are being prioritised as they can be completed faster and improve water security in the next 12 months.
"What we are doing now is to have something in place this time next year so we don't have level five restrictions. If we go to level five, it's devastating," Cr Bourke said.
"We're well in front of other councils, but we want to make sure in October next year we're not in this predicament."
