EUROBODALLA women have put their hands up to take part in a university study of rural water quality.
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The Batemans Bay Country Women’s Association (CWA) branch has agreed to take part in the Macquarie University study and hopes to host researcher Paul Harvey in March.
The branch will provide a water sample from its Sunshine Bay kitchen for testing.
Moruya and Bodalla branches are also interested in taking part, with the Bodalla branch due to discuss the Healthy Water for Healthy Lives study on Thursday.
Researchers approached the CWA after preliminary research indicated excessive levels of lead and other metal contamination in NSW household drinking water.
Various locations throughout the state were found to have drinking water containing up to 20 times the amount of lead recommended by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
Batemans Bay branch president Maureen Kinross, a retired nurse, said it was important to take part.
“It would be good to know what our water quality is,” Mrs Kinross said.
Mr Harvey will tour regional NSW to determine the extent of lead and other heavy metal contamination in Australian community centres.
“Some initial tests have demonstrated much higher levels of lead in drinking water than previously understood, which calls for a much broader assessment of the current levels across the state,” Mr Harvey said.
“So far I’ve discovered contaminated drinking water from ageing and inappropriate water infrastructure in a number of towns from NSW and Tasmania.”
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