Aboriginal communities in NSW are drinking water which is well below the standard of non-Indigenous communities, the opposition says.
Labor MP Walt Secord released new figures on Friday showing that from July 2012 to June 2013, 1.91 per cent of 682 water samples from Aboriginal Communities exceeded a national health guideline on the bacteria E.coli.
While that might seem like a small percentage, Mr Secord said it was much higher than that of non-Indigenous communities where only 0.22 per cent of almost 54,000 samples exceeded the guideline for the same period.
Mr Secord, who obtained the statistics from NSW Health, said it showed that NSW Aboriginal communities were drinking water which is well below standards enjoyed by other Australians.
"All Australians deserve to have clean drinking water, it is a right," he said.
"Unfortunately, in NSW that is not the case."
However, in a responses provided to Mr Secord, NSW Health said that from January to August of this year, only 0.21 per cent of the 482 samples analysed exceeded a health guideline.
It noted that any increases over these health guidelines did not necessarily indicate a public health risk but would rather trigger an investigation.
"Incidents of greatest public health risk are not necessarily reflected by high readings of contamination," it said.
