That is the situation currently facing residents during the region's worst drought on record.

But council's infrastructure and engineering services director, Rob Scott, is adamant they have the strategies in place to prevent the community running out of water.

Key to these strategies is the increase of water production at the Nabiac Aquifer Borefield and Water Treatment Plant.

The $34.6 million project was opened in February this year, more than two decades after it was originally conceived.

Related: Nabiac Aquifer Water Supply Scheme officially opens

At the time, the region was in level one water restrictions and the project's head engineer, Brendan Guiney, said the resource was "absolutely essential to prevent going deeper into water restrictions."

MidCoast Council mayor, David West, added, "We are very fortunate as a result of this plant of almost being completely drought-proof."

Ten months on and it is clear neither of those statements were true.

But Mr Scott says what we're experiencing now is unprecedented.

"What we've got to recognise is this is the worst drought on record," he said.

"This is the driest year ever recorded in 140 years of data.

"Even the worst year before this had 20 per cent more rainfall."

In response to these unprecedented conditions, Mr Scott said council would be focussing its energies into commissioning new bores at the Nabiac site, optimising the existing bores in place, and establishing a mobile desalination plant adjacent to the treatment plant.

Through these measures, he believes they can increase water production at the facility from around six megalitres per day (one megalitre is equivalent to one million litres) to somewhere between 13 and 14 megalitres per day.

Asked why the borefield had only been producing six megalitres per day when in February it was expected to produce between six and 10 megalitres per day, Mr Scott said those figures were based off projections.

"When we actually commissioned and started operating the bores at full capacity what we were able to achieve was more in the average of six megalitres per day," he said.

"So we were on the low scale of what we were projecting we'd be able to achieve from those bores, but of course until you run through a drought sequence like this and actually start running those bores, you're not in a position to know exactly how much they're going to run."

But Mr Scott said in the past two weeks, through commissioning four additional bores and optimising the flow from the existing fourteen bores, they had increased water production up to around 10 megalitres per day.

With eight additional bores scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer, Mr Scott believed they would be able to further increase the water production at the facility in case the significant rainfall predicted for February didn't eventuate.

"At the end of the day I'm not going to bet against the weather, and we are always going to plan for the worst case scenario and make sure we're ready for that," he said.

Related: Thirsting for leadership

But while he was certain the strategies they had in place would prevent the region from running out of water, he said each member of the community had a responsibility to do their part.

"What we need is people to get on board, instead of people sneaking out at night and topping their pool up and watering their gardens, which we hear plenty of people talking about their neighbours doing the wrong thing, we need people to stop trying to do the wrong thing and start trying to conserve water when they get a chance," he said.

"The crux of it is, if we want to be a prosperous area, if we want to have good active businesses, we really need to get on board with our water conservation now so that we can continue to operate the way that we have."

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