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Media Release - Department of Water and Energy Date: 16 April 2008 MINISTER OFFICIALLY OPENS $56 MILLION SEWERAGE SCHEME The Minister for Water, Nathan Rees today officially opened the $56 million Conjola Regional Sewerage Scheme – one of the largest to be constructed in regional NSW. The completion of this important project would benefit around 2,000 permanent residents from nine coastal villages in the Shoalhaven City Council area. This scheme will not only provide sewerage services to the communities of North Bendalong, Bendalong, Manyana, Berringer Lake, Cunjurong, Conjola, Fisherman’s Paradise, Killarney and Conjola Park, but also the 6,000 or more tourists who visit this coastal haven during the peak summer period. The scheme will provide environmental benefits and improve public health by eliminating failing on-site sewerage systems that can contaminate local waterways. The substantial increase in demand for sewerage services during the holidays had provided challenges in designing and constructing the essential infrastructure to cope with present, seasonal and future demand. The new scheme is a very modern system that has the capacity to treat the wastewater of up to 11,000 people to a very high standard. It consists of two wastewater treatment plants, gravity and pressure sewage collection systems, pumping stations and transfer mains, a treated water pipeline under the lake and a computerised management system. The scheme has taken over 10 years to develop and two and a half years to construct. It was made possible by the close partnership formed between Shoalhaven City Council and the NSW Government. Almost $24 million was provided by the Iemma Government through the Country Towns Water Supply and Sewerage Program for this project, as part of our commitment to improving services for people in regional NSW. Around 350 properties out of the 2,000 that are eligible have already connected to the scheme and I encourage other residents to connect as soon as possible. Since its inception in 1994, the NSW Government’s $1.1 billion Country Towns Water Supply and Sewerage Program has assisted more than 340 projects, directly benefiting more than one million people around the State.   MEDIA CONTACTS: Department of Water and Energy Frances Wood (02) 8281 7461 or 0437 596 103 Level 17, 227 Elizabeth St, SYDNEY NSW 2000 GPO Box 3889, Sydney NSW 2001 Facsimile (02) 8281 7450 Top of Page List of Media Releases © NSW Department of Natural Resources