This week we heard how two retailers were feeling the pinch as a result, and how they clearly attributed falling sales to the lack of rain throughout the region.

We also learn of the cancellation of this year's Black Tie and Boots Ball, with Rural Aid making the decision to cancel this year's event due to slow ticket sales just days before it was scheduled to be held on Saturday week.

There's no doubt slow ticket sales can be directly linked to the fact that people are just not in a financial position to contribute.

As far as Federal or State government policy solutions go most of the offerings have been large in scale, perhaps to match the severity of the situation we face.

But bureaucracy is often a slow-moving beast - and the bigger the weight to bear, the slower it moves.

In the six months leading to the state election, the big ticket item in the NSW government's water policy will be raising Wyangala Dam's wall by 10 metres courtesy of a $650 million undertaking.

MAP: Where is Wyangala Dam ...

Then Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro said environmental and economic studies would commence this year should their Coalition government be returned to power, as it was.

Such massive developments almost always cost in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, so perhaps we should be looking to hedge our bets with multiple smaller proposals.

There is a plethora of smaller dams across the Central West, and upgrading half a dozen of them could potentially provide the same level of water security as one big expansion.

And these smaller upgrades may slide through the belly of the bureaucratic beast quicker, a more palatable and digestible meal than a hundred-million-dollar feast.

The NSW government has committed $1.5 billion to regional water infrastructure projects, so there is plenty of money up for grabs, but we need our representatives to get on the front foot and lobby for the money.

With a dry winter predicted, and cities and towns across the region on water restrictions, it's a bleak outlook, and a new dam expansion, regardless of how small, will remind people that one day it will rain again.

And when it does, we need to be ready.