A water expert and regional councils have reacted to New South Wales Premier Chris Minns' promise, to guarantee access to safe reliable water in the state's constitution, with hope and trepidation.
Mr Minns raised concerns in the days before last month's election the coalition government intended on privatising Sydney Water.
He also said the right to water should be protected in the constitution.
"Labor also believes that a guaranteed right to a safe, reliable, supply of clean water — provided by the government of this state — should be a constitutionally protected right for the people of NSW," he said on March 19 in Parramatta.
The line connected to a Labor promise to amend the constitution to protect Sydney Water and Hunter Water from being sold.
It also opened a conversation about enshrining a right to water access.
Professor of University of NSW's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stuart Khan, said it was exciting to hear water talked about as a "high-profile" issue.
He said the concept sounded "visionary".
"I interpret that as now, the Labor government saying that everybody is entitled to clean, safe drinking water and that it will be provided by the NSW government, so they will shoulder the responsibility for ensuring that everybody in NSW does have access to clean safe drinking water," he said.
"If we put the means in place to be able to deliver on it, then it will have real tangible outcomes for public health and other water uses."
Professor Khan said he saw Mr Minns develop a good understanding of the water sector when he was shadow water minister and didn't believe the statement was "something he would have thrown out there completely randomly".
Definition the key
Professor Khan said the definition of the right was important.
"Certainly, there are supplies of water in regional and remote NSW that either all the time or from time to time do not meet the requirements of the Australian water guidelines," he said.
"Contaminants we have dealt with include things like uranium, arsenic, and sodium in water."
Professor Khan said unacceptable infrastructure vulnerabilities would also have to be made more resilient to incidents such as floods or drought.
"Are we suggesting that people could move to any location in remote NSW, and we would build a pipeline out to them to supply chlorinated, fluoridated, treated drinking water," he said.
"Or are there potentially other things that we would accept such as a rainwater tanks or access to a private bore that might meet that obligation on behalf of the NSW government."
Dozens of local governments manage water supply outside of the Sydney and Hunter water services.
Mr Khan said other states such as Tasmanian had unified water utilities to take the burden off councils.
"Tasmania was notorious for boiled water alerts, water quality and quantity concerns and there have been clear improvements since the establishment of TasWater through economies of scale," he said.
Water quality concerns
There have been 33 boil water notices issued across regional and rural NSW since last year
The most recent was for the community of Crescent Head in the Kempsey Shire Council on the Mid North Coast on February 26.
Mayor Paul Hauville said councils were already providing safe and reliable water and dealt with issues through the alert system.
"Our recent problem was fixed by council staff, but because of the system they had to keep advising the community to keep boiling their water until given the all clear by NSW Health," he said.
"We are already doing the job to a very high level but if there was something that was in the constitution that provided better financing or reliability, that would be a step forward, but I would need to see the detail."
Cr Hauville said while Kempsey was positioned well, he saw other communities needed support.
"I can certainly see the plight of the people in Walgett and their issues with bore water being contaminated by a high degree of potassium and salt — I hope the state government steps up and fixes that very quickly," he said.
A recent 7.30 report highlighted concerns about drinking water supply in the north-west town.
Inverell Shire Council on the Northern Tablelands also had a boil water notice for the village of Yetman in February.
Mayor Paul Harmon said he viewed the Mr Minns's comment about constitutional protection with trepidation.
"I'm a bit sceptical around those kinds of statements," Cr Harmon said.
"There needs to be strong clarification around what that means."
Cr Harmon said local governments in NSW would not tolerate any attempt to takeover local utilities.
"But, if they are wanting councils to provide this level of service there will have to be incentives and assistance to make sure every community has potable water," he said.
When contacted for comment, the Premier’s office said the comment was made in the context of the major metro water utilities.
"Government will amend the NSW Constitution to safeguard the public ownership of our state's critical public assets, starting with Sydney Water and Hunter Water," a spokesperson said.
