At the same time as Sydney was being inundated with the biggest downpour in 50 years and its main dam was spilling billions of litres of water, a simmering internal Coalition rift emerged.

On Monday, as water flooded parts of the state, Sydney Water ramped up operations of the city’s desalination plant to run at capacity and provide 15 per cent of Sydney’s drinking water.

With water quality so poor in Warragamba Dam from the relentless rain, the desalination plant – once derided as a white elephant – became critical to supply this week. It had been operating, though not at full capacity, since 2019 and it was continued through last year after much of Warragamba’s catchment was spoiled by ash from the Black Summer fires.

As Warragamba spilled over this week, so did tensions between two cabinet colleagues, Water Minister Melinda Pavey and Emergency Services David Elliott. Flood or drought, water is a divisive issue for the NSW government.

Elliott, the MP for Baulkham Hills, which was facing localised flooding, was furious with his cabinet colleague over what he says was a reluctance from Pavey to release water from the full Warragamba ahead of the big wet. He voiced his anger as the rain bucketed down and thousands faced evacuation from their homes, although Elliott insists he first raised concerns about water levels in the dam when he was elected to Parliament a decade ago.

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Pavey, on the other hand, stressed she had no power to do anything about the dam levels because of the strict operating protocols that dictate how WaterNSW manages Warragamba. Releasing water would not have helped in any case, she told Parliament on Tuesday.

“This has been an extraordinary event that the Bureau of Meteorology only saw the significance of a couple of days before it started,” she said. “It was a fast‑moving event.”

Even when cabinet was meeting last year at the state emergency operations centre in Homebush during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, water was bubbling away as a contentious issue. Although Warragamba was full for much of last year, level one restrictions remained in place until December, when they were replaced with guidelines. Fines are still in place for breaking some of those rules, including watering hard surfaces.