I believe if any town runs out of water the blame lies solely with local, state and federal politicians who refuse to work cooperatively for long term solutions for anything. I also believe that if they spent a lot less time trying to get their face in the media with hairbrained ideas we would be much better off.

When the fuel crisis hit in the 1970s, good cars were consuming about 12L/100 kms, fast forward 50 years and they now consume about 6L/100km.

When electricity costs spiked about six years ago our winter bill was $650, it is now about $300 because we are using the power much more efficiently.

I also believe that it does not take an Einstein to workout that the secret of water saving is to use the remaining volume more efficiently.

Tamworth city has access to quite a bit of underground water. It appears that a proposed dam at Dungowan may see the light of day in a few years time. While the call is to start the bulldozers we need to at least have some geology and scientific study to determine if the site is suitable.

A couple of recent major catastrophic dam failures in Brazil with substantial loss of life and property should focus our geologists and engineers before construction.

The issue I see with Dungowan is the very, very, very small catchment. Most good dam sites were taken before the end of the 1970s.

Burrendong Dam has a catchment about 200 km x 150 kms and once the soils reach runoff, it only takes 100 mm or 4 inches across the catchment to fill the 1.2 million megalitre dam.

Conversely Copeton Dam has a much smaller catchment and takes 300mm across the catchment to fill.

Once you have driven up Port Stephens Cutting in about 15 minutes take the first turn to the right to Nundle and follow along the main ridge for about 45 minutes and that is Dungowan dam catchment, you can drive around it in an hour.

The site is in part of the New England fold, a deeply faulted geological feature that runs from the Hunter to the Queensland border, Dungowan has some irregularities that might pose an issue to dam construction.

Also note that the present dam is prone to flash flooding the narrow valley so much so that an early warning system has been installed to give residents a few minutes to get out of the way.

Unfortunately, the pollies have made an art form out of wasting our money.

A new Dungowan Dam may help save Tamworth council from the costs of upgrading the present dam but an increase of 20,000 ML will not provide a substantial improvement in water security for the city.

It might be much more useful to connect a pipeline to the split rock dam at Manilla and extend it to Keepit Dam, a proposal rejected when Chaffey Dam was built or build a pipeline and bore water field in the Werris Creek and Currububula area of the Breeza Plain where a large volume water license could be bought and it would be available for immediate use.

It might help to lower the water table in those areas where rising salinity is an issue.

Until we get substantial falls of rain the issue of water use will get plenty of media focus, however, after that the politicians will go back to what they do best, scheming to get as much money for themselves as they can.