Eco News | We can all have a dam in our backyard to slake our thirst

We've had substantial amounts of rain this summer and Chifley Dam has been over 97 per cent full for the past 23 weeks.

Yet we continue to have water restrictions, probably because little progress has occurred in waterproofing the city's future.

The situation during the last drought was much more dire than most of us were led to believe. About 60 per cent of the time, we were drawing water not from Chifley Dam but from the Fish River.

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If drought conditions were as severe in the upper Fish River catchment as in Bathurst, Chifley Dam would have run out of water in 2019/20.

Luck was on our side and the severe water restrictions that stretched supplies. A significant number of councillors voted against water restrictions.

It's very difficult to identify a location around Bathurst where a new reservoir could be sited.

Councillor Warren Aubin's idea of one at the junction of the Fish and Campbells rivers is absurd.

Raising the Wyangala Dam wall might bring some relief via a shared pipeline with other tablelands towns. However, the upper catchment of the Lachlan has been in stream flow deficit for many years.

And only small amounts of water can be accessed from the Winburndale Dam.

We have yet to properly investigate water availability from under the Bathurst Floodplain - the source of Bathurst's water in the 19th century.

In the meantime, we promote the growth of Bathurst as though we have no water problems!

Building a pipeline to Bathurst from Chifley Dam would increase the efficiency of our water supply. Nevertheless, dams are very inefficient in delivering water to cities. About three litres out of four stored at Chifley Dam are lost to evaporation and leakages.

As an interim measure, let's scrap the illogical stormwater harvesting program and build dams - thousands of dams - across Bathurst city. They are called rainwater tanks.

Tanks are not in the planning scope of either Bathurst Regional Council or the NSW Government.

Why not? Perhaps common-sense solutions escape our city planners?

Those of us who have a backyard tank know they are mostly brimful, and enable a household to ignore garden water restrictions.

Furthermore, if so desired, a tank can be safely and legally connected to a household with suitable filtration units.