THE prospect of a township based on a dry river bed combined with the growing threat of mass fish kills is the stark reality facing the people of Menindee, with Lake Wetherell becoming disconnected from the lakes system for the first time.

"Our turn to stand on the bed of the river is not far away, I don't reckon," Menindee water users' group committee member Graeme McCrabb said on Monday.

"Seei...