Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall reiterated on Tuesday the need to have plans and costings for the raising of the Malpas Dam wall completed as a matter of urgency.
Mr Marshall, Water Minister Melinda Pavey, Armidale Regional Council Mayor Ian Tiley, and the council’s water engineers, met at Malpas Dam, to update the Minister on the progress of the project’s feasibility study.
Once complete, the storage capacity of Malpas Dam will more than double to 27 gigalitres. Mr Marshall said the raising of the dam wall is not the only option on the table in the pursuit of the region’s water security, “We need a long-term integrated water strategy that provides surety of supply to Armidale, Guyra and Uralla”.
Mr Tiley also thanked the Water Minister for coming to Armidale to hear their proposal and concluded by saying, “Now is the time for us to be as bold and as visionary as this region was back in the 1960s”.