Deputy Premier visits Malpas Dam

Armidale Regional Council’s Program Leader Water and Wastewater Luke Finnegan, left, Mayor Simon Murray, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall

03rd Jul 2019

THE push to increase the height of the wall of Malpas Dam is gaining traction with Deputy Premier John Barilaro inspecting the dwindling supply dam and construction progress on the water pipeline to Guyra last week.
Mr Barilaro visited the dam with Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall to discuss plans to raise the dam wall by five metres to double storage capacity of the dam and realising the original vision when Malpas was built in the 1960s.
Malpas Dam is a 13,000-megalitre reservoir, which by adding only five metres to the wall’s height, could have its capacity doubled to 26,000 megalitres.
Mr Marshall has been championing the need to start upgrading existing water supplies, so communities like Guyra and Armidale are less likely to run out of water during prolonged dry periods.
“I don’t think we need to build new dams when it could be more cost-effective to increase the size of what we’ve already got,” Mr Marshall said.
“It’s great to be able to bring the Deputy Premier to the region, stand below the dam wall to not only see what is being achieved with the $13 million pipeline to Guyra, but also continue a discussion around what more can be done to improve our region’s water security.
The NSW Government has allocated $527.1 million in the 2019-20 Budget to improve regional communities’ access to dependable, clean and safe water supplies and sewerage services.
“I have had the conversation with Armidale Regional Council on the need to explore this option, now it’s time to take that discussion further and seek funding to investigate its viability so homes and businesses have reliable access to potable water during prolonged periods of drought,” he said.

Going strong for 100 years

Phone	(02) 6779 2347
Email	Contact Us
Social

Deputy Premier visits Malpas Dam

Menu

News

Contact