A PROPOSAL by three local government areas, including Leeton, to help drought-proof the area is progressing, according to mayor Paul Maytom.
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Leeton Shire Council, Narrandera Shire Council and Griffith City Council recently met to discuss the idea of turning Lake Coolah also known as Lake Mejum, into a permanent water storage that could be drawn on at times of excess flow.
The issue was raised at council's April meeting where it was decided to support a bid by Narrandera shire to use the natural water storage in a different way.
Councillor Maytom said the next step for the three councils was to explore funding opportunities.
"What we are looking at doing now is researching what funding is available to have a consultant come on board and go through the many years of reports and studies that has been done on Lake Coolah," Cr Maytom said.
"There are conflicting ideas in those studies, so we want to get an idea of where it is at and what the options could be.
"We want to clearly show what the benefits would be both from an environmental aspect and the socio-economic side too."
Located north of Narrandera and south east of Leeton, Lake Coolah is a natural water storage that fills in times of excess rainfall, such as happened two years ago.
The proposal is to create a channel to make it a permanent 500,000 megalitre feature that could also be used as a tourism drawcard.
The three councils will now request quotations for a consultancy brief to advise how the proposal would meet the Murray-Darling Basin Plan objectives and the current NSW Water Policy Framework.
"It's only very early stages yet, but it is something we are trying to move forward with," Cr Maytom said.
"We'll try and pull it all together ... it's a must for our future.
"We stepped it up a notch by all three councils meeting ... we're trying to do as much as we can."