Steph Cooke MP holds a bottle of brown water flanked by National Party MPs and town residents concerned about the water. Photo: Supplied.
Brown tap water that stains hair and leaves residents battling eczema has become the daily reality in Narrandera, according to residents who have urged the governments to fix the town’s worsening water crisis.
Former Sydneysider Karin Olsen moved to the Riverina town in 2023, and said she’d been battling health problems ever since.
“I turned up three and a half years ago, and within three days, I was as sick as a dog,” she said.
“I went to the local chemist, and she said, ‘You’re not drinking the water, are you?’”
“As a 57-year-old, I’ve never experienced eczema, dermatitis, dry hair, [and dry] nails. In the last three and a half years, I’ve had episodes of contact dermatitis, and I’ve had eczema.”
Polly Rombola, who grew up in Narrandera, said it had been a problem for years.
“You turn your bathroom tap on in the morning, and this is what you get met with,” she said.
“You get in the shower, and all of a sudden, you look at the floor, which is white, and it’s not. I’m white-haired, and I get out and the hair’s brown.”
Ms Olsen and Ms Rombola attended a community meeting hosted by Cootamundra MP Steph Cooke to express their concerns about the water.
The event was also attended by federal Nationals leader Matt Canavan, Riverina MP Michael McCormack and Nationals candidate for Farrer Brad Robertson.
Mr McCormack questioned why so much money was being spent on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan while locals were left to suffer.
“If we can afford to spend $13 billion dollars on the environmental issues of the Murray-Darling, why can’t we spend $30 million dollars fixing the human water issues of the Murray-Darling? … We have had the money, to buy back all this water, for the environment. Well, I think humans are part of the environment. They deserve good outcomes as well.”
At a press conference, he held up a bottle of brown water and asked journalists if they’d be prepared to drink it. Nobody took up the offer.
Michael McCormack MP offers journalists a drink. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
David Farley, the One Nation candidate for Farrer, who grew up in Narrandera, said the water had been bad in his town for at least 35 years.
“The water quality isn’t to the standard of a first world country standard; drinking is only possible after filtering,” he said.
“Problems arose after switching from direct river pumping to bore pumping.”
Ms Cooke said she had been working closely with Narrandera Shire Council, which recently secured $908,000 in Commonwealth funding, matched by council, to develop a business case for a permanent water treatment plant.
The funding was awarded following the council’s second application to the National Water Grid program, after the NSW Government declined to endorse the initial submission, causing significant delays.
“The NSW Government walked away from Narrandera when it mattered most by declining to support the original Commonwealth funding application,” she said.
“With conditions now worse three years on, delivering a temporary water treatment plant is the very least they can do.”
