YOU SAY: Better late than never for new testing facility

It seems we find ourselves in a new era of living with COVID, and it's what we have been told would be coming for months as our vaccination rate goes up.

One would have thought that given we have known for months that this would be the way we will all live, we should have been better prepared for it.

The crush on testing facilities in both Albury and Wodonga seems to have almost passed by the time this new facility has been set up.

Yes, it is difficult because no one has a crystal ball and can predict where COVID would pop up. But there surely should have been some plan in place a long time for regional areas.

We don't have a hospital down the road that can help us out. Our health service is already trying to play catch up in terms of funding and staffing and investment up to other areas.

It seems so unfair on the health workers that they have most likely been living in a pretty constant state of anxiety for 18 months now. Right at the point where they would have all been exhausted and hoping for a reprieve, we got our first real outbreak and they were under more pressure than ever.

There should have been a plan in place to send resources where they were needed more quickly. It just seems that again, we are making up solutions as we go along despite the fact that we have known for some time what was to come.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Despite COVID-19, the Natural Resources Access Regulator has completed more inspections than ever before, safely inspecting more than 5,000 pumps and bores across the state, and the Murrumbidgee's report card is in.

The latest data shows the Murrumbidgee recorded the highest number of penalty notices in NSW, alongside the North Coast. We issued 26 penalty notices, seven statutory notices and 15 formal warnings in your catchment over the year. We also finalised 88 investigations in the catchment.

As we implement significant water reforms across NSW we continue to help water users understand the rules. However, we don't shy away from enforcing the law.

We know you are seeing more water than you have in a long while, but we must think about water in the long term, not just in the here and now. When we have water in abundance it is even more important that we do the right thing for our neighbours downstream, the environment and communities.

Water is precious, it belongs to everyone, and water users need to know the rules. To find out more about how NRAR's work is benefiting NSW, read our annual Progress Report 2020-21.

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