THERE is a memorable scene in the film adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist where the young orphan, having had his first bowel of gruel, approaches the front table and says plaintively: "Please sir, I want some more."
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Today, Bathurst is that young orphan.
On Monday, the state government announced $10 million in drought relief funding for the region to help supplement the local water supply.
With Ben Chifley Dam hovering at record lows of around 40 per cent capacity, the need to find new water sources for our growing city has never been more critical.
The new money from the state government will go towards a stormwater harvesting scheme for the Bathurst region and also connecting the pipeline from the Wirnburndale Dam to the water treatment works.
That will mean that water which is currently only useful for irrigating local parks and gardens will be able to be added to the local drinking supply.
It's not a huge amount of water in big picture terms - Chifley Dam's capacity is about 30,000 megalitres compared to just 1700 megalitres at Winburndale - but at the time when it refuses to rain every bit will help.
While we welcome funding for these two important projects, however, the Bathurst region and Bathurst Regional Council cannot now sit back and think the job is done.
Stormwater harvesting and the Winburndale pipeline are useful short-term fixes but we need to keep lobbying for bigger ticket items. And the first of those projects needs to be a pipeline from Ben Chifley Dam to the water treatment works at Gormans Hill which will give council greater control over its water assets and also limit evaporation of this valuable resource.
A proposal to (again) increase the height of Ben Chifley Dam wall remains on the agenda, while Bathurst MP Paul Toole used Monday's funding announcement to also push the case for building another dam in the region.
None of the options will come cheaply and none will provide short-term solutions.
But something beyond stormwater harvesting and the Winburndale pipeline will be needed once this drought finally breaks to ensure we're better prepared when the next drought comes.
And that means while we'll gladly take the $10 million announced on Monday, Bathurst will also keep up the pressure on the state government to get even more down the track.
