A charity has urged the state government to put portable desalination plants in regional towns across drought-stricken NSW to keep clean water flowing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The mobile units are housed in a shipping container and transform up to one million litres of bore water into pure water in 24 hours with the use of a generator.
A series of filters remove salinity and other undesirable minerals and an ultraviolet lamp treats the water to kill bacteria. It's that good it can turn water that looks like coffee into clear liquid.
The need for this has never been more critical.
Right now four NSW dams have between 1 and 5 per cent of water left. Another four sit between 9 and 26 per cent.
Bores are usually the back-up plan when dams run dry and there are about 5500 of them in the state.
Water Minister Melinda Pavey's office has confirmed most regional towns have access to one.
"We can't have people leaving these country towns because they can't get fresh water to drink and cook with," Mr Alder said.
If we don't get rain in the next two to three months there are country towns that will be critical. Do we want to wait until we get to that point before we point the trigger and give them some of these solutions?
"Let's get in early and help sustain these towns."
Read more: The Big Dry - everything you need to know about the drought
Rural Aid has had a 75,000 litre unit built at a cost of $120,000. That size will supply 290 people with a daily water usage of 180 litres per person, creator Brian Schulz of Saltfree Desalination confirmed.
Rural Aid CEO Charles Alder said the water would go even further if it was used for cooking and drinking and residents relied on unprocessed bore water for showering and other household needs.
The unit costs $20,000 a year to run which includes the service and replacing the filters. The charity will not make any money out of it.
Rural Aid hopes to put it in a drought-stricken town later this month and said several councils has already expressed an interest.
The charity met with the state government on Monday to urge it to respond proactively to the unfolding water crisis and flag the mobile units as a cost-effective solution.
Mr Alder said the treated water could be transferred into household tanks with a tanker or residents could collect a daily allocation for cooking and drinking.
Mr Alder said towns with a dwindling bore water supply would also benefit.
"We could put one of these units next to a bore in a nearby town and transport it to those towns," he said.
Brian and Carolyn Schulz have been making desalination units through their business Saltfree Desalination for 12 years. In that time farmers and commercial businesses have been their main customers.
A trip to a farm in western NSW saw him confronted with a glass of bore water that looked like instant coffee.
"They poured a glass of water out of the kitchen tap so we could see what they were dealing with and it looked just like coffee. I couldn't believe it," Mr Schulz said.
The bore water was full of so much sulphate that they smelt worse when they got out of the shower than when they got in.
"You get emotionally distressed seeing what people are going through."
Mr Schulz said the salinity level determined the amount of water the machine could produce.
For example, a salinity level of 2000 parts per million would see a 25 per cent drop in the amount of water that arrived at the end of the process. A 8000 to 9000 parts per million level would see a 50-50 split between water and mineral waste.
"Obviously 75,000 litres isn't a huge amount - it's not going to keep 10,000 people in showers and loads of washing and cooking and drinking, but, it would give a decent community fresh drinking water on a daily basis," Mr Alder said.
"We can build one that will fit on the back of a [12 metre] trailer and be a completely mobile unit that is pulled from town to town by a prime mover."
A spokeswoman for Ms Pavey said the government understood regional towns were "doing it tough" and needed "support and assistance during this unprecedented drought".
Water is essential for regional towns to thrive. We will continue to support and work with communities to ensure their water security now and into the future,
- she said.
The spokeswoman added that the government had already committed $1 billion to the Safe and Secure Fund, which is for regional town planning and responding to water needs.