Tamworth Regional Council: drought support for farmers with free bulk water to stop when region declared recovering or non-drought by DPI

Tamworth Regional Council voted this week to solidify the trigger point to cut off free bulk treated water for eligible primary producers and free silage and wastage wrap that were introduced in severe drought.

Councillor Glenn Inglis said he felt the report to council detailing why the support would be switched off was comprehensive.

"The logic is in the report for the recommendations and it all makes a lot of sense to me," he said.

The helping hand has been offered since August 2018 when Tamworth was in the midst of the worst drought conditions in living memory.

Since the start of the year there has been a slight ease in drought conditions for large areas of the state, but Tamworth is still identified as drought-affected by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

The council installed nine bulk water refill stations across the region and anyone with a Local Land Services rates notice was considered an eligible primary producer who could access up to 3ML of treated water each week.

Since these refill stations were installed, farmers have accessed 2509KL at no charge.

The council could have stopped free access to bulk water refill stations depending on water restrictions but because the circumstances are so different across the local government area it would have been more difficult to manage.

At the moment all areas of the council have been moved back to permanent water conservation measures with the exception of Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal.

The report argued that rivers and streams are running and on-farm tanks are full which could be considered a reason to stop access to free treated water.

Concerns the council had were that water restrictions can vary greatly across the region and that eligible primary producers who were genuinely in need of free water could be forced to travel long distances to access it in an area where water restrictions are higher.

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If the distance to the refill station is too great, some farmers might have to pay for access even after the drought has lowered production, created poor soil moisture and financial stress.

That's part of the reason why the council decided to base the trigger point to stop free water when the region is 50 per cent recovering or not in drought according to the DPI drought map instead.

Discussion with waste staff showed the free silage and wastage wrap had only been used by a handful of primary producers at the rural waste management facilities and in small amounts.