Brewarrina,which sources its water supply from a weir on the Barwon River,will on Tuesday become the first of the three towns to switch on a desalination plant,which the council has borrowed from Tenterfield Council,more than 600 kilometres away.
Mayor Phillip O'Connor said the town's raw water supply was purified at the local treatment plant,but this process could not remove the high sodium content that resulted from the lack of inflow into the river system.
"The longer the river doesn't run,the saltier the water gets. The water is drinkable but it has got a bad taste to it,"Cr O'Connor said.
The mobile plant,which was originally donated to Tenterfield council by charity Rural Aid,will filter the water from the treatment plant through a process of reverse osmosis. It has the capacity to provide up to 70,000 litres of drinking water a day.
However,the plant will not connect directly to Brewarrina's water supply,and will instead function as a refilling station,located in the town's Visitor Centre car park,where residents can bring containers and bottles to fill up and take back to their homes.
The Berejiklian government is spending $10 million to install similar desalination plants in Bourke and Walgett,but these will be attached to the towns'water supplies,meaning residents will be able to access the water directly from their taps.
Both towns are forced to rely on emergency bore water when their river supplies run low or cease,but testing has revealed higher sodium levels than those specified in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines on aesthetic (taste) grounds.