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The clean-up of millions of stinking, rotting, dead fish is finally underway almost a week after an unprecedented fish kill in a far western NSW town.
- A meeting between government officials and locals was held at Menindee on Tuesday
- Some community members are calling the situation a "health crisis"
- The meeting is told locals feel abandoned by the government and want their questions answered
Contractors will arrive at the river early Wednesday morning with fish nets, to begin the mammoth task of scooping out dead fish carcasses from the Darling-Baaka River, and disposing of their remains.
On Tuesday, furious Menindee local residents vented their frustrations at a community meeting, which was organised by government officials.
"You've had four years to put the bloody monitors in … where are they?" one local asked.
Another community member said: "It's got to be stopped and, if it's not stopped soon, these rivers, not only this one, but [also] the Murray River, will be a bloody mess."
After a similar mass fish kill event only a few years ago, many have expressed a sense of feeling abandoned and ignored.
The lack of local representation in decision-making positions within the emergency team, which includes police and government officials, was also a source of contention.
Outside the meeting, New South Wales government fisheries spokesman Cameron Lay stressed it was important for government officials to hear both the frustrations and opinions of the local community.
"Obviously, we can provide the information as we understand it, but we don't discount the significant importance of local knowledge," he told the ABC outside the meeting.
"It was a fantastic opportunity for us to bring our perspective about what's happened over the past few weeks, but to also hear some really heartfelt and informed opinions from members of the public.
"I'm pretty emotional about fish. I've been working with them for the past 25 years, but there are people who live on a river and have lived it their entire life.
"We really welcome that level of passion and emotion … and, hopefully, we can get better management decisions going forward."
Menindee Local Aboriginal Land Council director Michelle Kelly said many locals were frustrated their questions were not answered at the meeting, and were instead "taken on notice".
Government representatives said local residents could still drink the water, but Ms Kelly disagreed, and said fresh water needed to be carted in.
"We have got people living on the river with babies [who] can't flush their toilets, can't have a shower or can't use the water and that's a real health issue out here," she said.
An Essential Water representative said independent tests on the water in the past week had detected no abnormalities to make it unsafe to drink.
And an Environment Protection Authority representative said extra water samples would be flown to Sydney this evening, to be tested for heavy metals and pesticides.
Authorities have revealed the slow start to the clean-up had meant many decomposing fish carcasses have already sunk to the bottom of the river.
"We do have some concerns, with that volume of fish sinking to the bottom of the river, that it might actually negatively impact water quality even further by sucking more and more oxygen out of the water," Mr Lay said.
"And there's no way to clean them up once they've sunk."
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann was the first politician on the ground after the fish kill became evident and said she was stunned at the size and scale of the devastation.
"Premier [Dominic Perrottet] should be here. [Opposition Leader] Chris Minns should be here. This is a crisis of gargantuan proportions," Ms Faehrmann said.
Another meeting discussing the issues will be held at Menindee on Friday.