Water minister Simone McGurk officially opens Narrogin’s new stormwater harvesting dam

WA Minister for Water Simone McGurk was in Narrogin on Friday to officially open the town’s new stormwater harvesting dam, constructed behind Clayton Oval. Shire of Narrogin CEO Dale Stewart and three Shire councillors welcomed the minister to the site. “Three weeks after it was finished we got the first winter rains, and she filled in after one rain,” Mr Stewart said. “This year we’ve not had much summer rain — what you can see is 50 per cent capacity.” Constructed by Halanson Earth Moving, the dam was delivered by the Shire of Narrogin and funded in part by a $100,000 grant through the WA Government’s Community Water Supplies Partnership with Local Government program. It will serve as a catchment for rainwater runoff and provide non-potable water for the greening of sporting ovals around Narrogin, including two school ovals, three Shire ovals and the 3.5ha Narrogin racecourse. “Obviously, you want to do everything you can to not use potable water to maintain facilities so this is fantastic — water for agriculture is a big issue, community amenities as well,” Ms McGurk said. “In Williams, they’ve put two tanks on the golf course, and the golf course has agreed to draw on the aquifer to use bores to fill them up. “Solutions are going to be different for different communities, and one of the things I’m announcing while I’m down here is the new round of grants.” The Shire of Williams is set to receive $24,372 to reduce reliance on scheme water usage and augment firefighting capacity. The Shire will contribute $12,000 to the project which will install a new water tank. Other Wheatbelt shires that will receive funding as part of the latest round of grants include the Shire of Brookton, which will receive $147,967, and the Shire of Kondinin. “There’s many moving parts of being Minister for Water,” Ms McGurk said, “But making sure that we can meet local community’s needs when we know all the evidence is that annual rainfall is declining — the science is in, but if we can come up with solutions for communities with the communities we can keep things ticking along. “What I think we’ve got to understand is that this isn’t just a one-off drought, this is a trend, and we’ve got to respond to that it in a way that is cost-effective and sustainable for everybody.”