MidCoast Water Treatment Plant Upgrade Complete

Drought resilience has been improved on the MidCoast thanks to a major upgrade to the Nabiac Water Treatment Plant that has boosted its capacity by 50 per cent.

The completed project is part of the $8.5 million Manning Water Supply System Drought Response Project that was funded 100 per cent by the NSW Government and delivered in stages over the past five years.

The critical overhaul of the Nabiac plant will increase production from 12 million to 18 million litres per day and reduce system failures thanks to the installation of new advanced monitoring technologies.

It builds on five new bores in 2020, bringing the number of bores at the Nabiac borefield to 28 and increasing the Manning region’s water supply by an extra 4.3ML a day.

The network services close to 80,000 residents across Crowdy Head, Forster, Hallidays Point, Harrington, Lansdowne, Nabiac, Pacific Palms, Taree, Tuncurry and Wingham. During peak holiday periods, this rises to 100,000 people with an influx of tourists.

NSW DCCEEW Executive Director Infrastructure Development, Lisa Hingerty said:  

“The MidCoast really did it tough during the last drought and almost ran out of water - having less than 50 days’ of supply left, which locals will not easily forget.

“We know dry conditions will return, so it was essential that we rallied behind the community to provide greater access to groundwater while also expanding the capacity of the water treatment plant to level-up their drought resilience.

“Making sure the MidCoast has the water infrastructure it needs will put the region in a stronger position to weather the next drought which is why we invested $8.5million to get the project across the finish line.”

MidCoast Council Mayor Claire Pontin said:  

“Our community knows first-hand the severe impacts of drought and are under no illusion that it could strike again.

“This upgrade will put us on the front foot increasing our treatment capabilities to ensure we can continue to deliver safer and more reliable water to locals and the thousands of people that visit the region every year.

“With the wonderful support of the NSW Government, I’m delighted to see this major infrastructure project complete and ready to shore-up water security across the MidCoast”.