Putting in a plug for increasing the capacity of Malpas Dam ...

Malpas dam with current wall in background (June 2022).

You may have seen via recent social media that currently there is a North Coast Regional Water Strategy being developed by the NSW State government. Our association wondered what this was about so we followed the link to their website. If you wish to make a submission, you still have until midnight on June 19, 2022 to do so! (You can find their submission form at the link).

This website tells us of just one of these regional plans for water - across NSW - over the next 20 years. We were not certain what region we, in Armidale, were in, so we wrote to them to ask. As our city drains eastwards, we learned that we are included in the North Coast region. But, as this North Coast Water Strategy makes clear, there are many massive coastal rivers that are also the subject of these plans - and we wonder if our little area up on the Tablelands might be ignored - what with all of the disasters with coastal flooding such as in Lismore!

We found the draft documents to be intimidating in their length and we were critical of the many generic ‘motherhood’ type goals and strategies which were difficult to disagree with but were mostly bland. One wonders, what practical outcomes will there be for our city - or, for that matter, for any region, given the generic strategies being put forward? We could see no draft plans mentioned for increasing the storage of Malpas Dam and so we thought it might be a good idea to let them know of our desire for this to happen!

If you are interested in this issue, read on to for some quotes from our submission:

We suggested that our highest priority is for: “3.1 Support local councils to provide a secure and affordable water supply for towns - because without water, there can be no communities. This is especially true for Armidale as its 60 years old water supply needs upgrading substantially to allow our city and region to flourish now and into the future”.

They write about 6 challenges (see the above website). We wrote: “So, yes, we can agree with challenges 1, 2, 5 and 6 but, from our perspective, challenge 6 (water availability for local towns) is of greatest concern to our city. Of course, regarding challenge 1 (declining catchment and river health), we point out that what happens with water on the Tablelands impacts on coastal water. Naturally, challenge 3 (saltwater intrusion) is not of relevance to us on the Tablelands and challenge 4 seems to us to be a 'politically correct' challenge that will require much more involvement of Aboriginal communities to be effective.

It seems to us that, whilst this 'North Coast' region includes a tableland city such as Armidale, it is almost as an afterthought. Yes, most of our city drains towards the coast, but why would not DPE consider a region such as Northern Tablelands which could more appropriately focus on issues faced by inland and upland cities such as Armidale - which do not have major rivers flowing through them? We do not receive the high rainfalls typical of the coastal areas which are the prime focus of this draft plan.

How much water should be provided to sustain and allow the growth of any city in the State? How is it calculated? Is there equity between the provision of water for coastal cities and those inland? We assume that it depends on a city or town's population, changes in population, average rainfall, variability of rainfall, size and quality of water storages, catchment of water storages, need for environmental flows, etc. etc. Why is this sort of information not provided in a transparent fashion so that citizens across the State can see that we are being treated equitably?

It seems to us that this draft plan is too focused on the coast and will mean that our tableland city will receive very little attention in the broad scheme of these DPE plans made within your State-wide bureaucracy in Parramatta.

It is nearly 60 years since Armidale's most recent water reservoir - Malpas Dam - was constructed. In the most recent drought of 2019 - which was unprecedented and catastrophic in our region - we learned the hard way of the severe limitations of this reservoir for our city, particularly if it wishes to grow.

So, we wish to bring to your attention the need not only to create a more secure supply of drinking water for our city and region but also to plan for the supply of sufficient environmental flows which can keep our local streams healthy even during drought. This is especially important to Armidale as its main stream, Dumaresq Creek, was dammed 13 km upstream way back in 1898. Lamentably, there is no plan to provide environmental flows which could sustain the health of our waterways and also provide a source of water for irrigating playing fields without impacting on the supply of drinking quality water for the city.

We believe the fact that your form design does not provide a space for a link to our community association, is regrettable. Please visit our website (https://www.armidalecreeklands.org.au/) to find more explanation about our association's views on water for Armidale's creeklands”.