Tamworth councillor Mark Rodda 'appalled' by NSW govt's water project timeline | Water Pressure

Earlier this week, the Leader revealed the NSW government was reluctant to fund large-scale water projects in the region until it had completed a study, which is due to be completed by the end of 2020.

Mark Rodda was appalled by the report's deadline and said communities in the midst of the worst drought in living memory couldn't wait that long.

"The timeline is absurd, we've got the problem now," Cr Rodda said.

"It's an absurd thing to expect a community affected by drought to wait for.

"The timeline of the report is purely a time-delaying tactic from a government visibly hoping it will rain, so the tricky questions can just go away."

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Cr Rodda said there was growing community frustration with the lack of planning from the government, who had "clearly dropped the ball on this issue".

"We've officially been in drought for two years now, yet we have to wait until the end of next year until we see a report," Cr Rodda said.

"Let's keep in mind the government has been in power for more than eight years, and this is the best they can do.

"It's pretty poor on behalf of the government, who claims to be caring and representative of regional NSW."

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Tamworth deputy mayor Phil Betts said there were two aspects to the region's water security - the short term and the long term, with Namoi Regional Water Study falling in to the latter.

He said the study's end of 2020 timeline was "absolutely reasonable" if it resulted in a massive project like the upgrade of Dungowan Dam, which would represent almost a half-a-billion-dollar investment.

"My preference for the long term is an upgraded Dungowan Dam," Cr Betts said.

Tamworth councillor Russell Webb said the region's elected politicians "really want to see action", however faced administrative red tape.

"The bureaucratic processes in place seem to be a handbrake on anything positive happening," Cr Webb said.

"The bureaucracy can make it such a hard and lengthy process, it does becomes frustrating for everyone involved."