Water group to seek meeting with water minister Kevin Anderson to lobby for rules reform after packed forum

Tamworth Water Security Alliance member Graham Carter said 92 people turned up to the forum on Tuesday night, at the Wests Leagues Club.

"The three things they learned from last night is that there's an urgent need to do something. A lot of those solutions are available now, we've just got to make a choice. And it's just we need to tell the people to make those choices," he said.

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The planned new Dungowan Dam will take 10 years to build, fill and start showing benefits, and there might be a drought or two by then, he said.

Tamworth Regional Council director of water and waste Bruce Logan laid out council plans for a new water recycling plant for use by the city's three abattoirs at the event

Mr Logan also complained that the water sharing plan covering the city doesn't allow the council to "bank" the water that residents save by reducing their use in a drought. The extra water is just sold, he said.

UNSE professor Stuart Khan said the community needed to be part of the discussion, if water authorities look to answers like water recycling as the answer.

"Informed communities make better decisions," he said.

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Professor Khan believes all options should be on the table, including recycled drinking water.

He laid out a long list of solutions adopted by other communities in NSW and other states, but said most of the simplest and easiest ones have already been adopted by Tamworth.

"Some of the most obvious available options are water recycling options. If we've had that conversation on the coast I would have spoken about desal, but I took those slides out," he said.

Mr Carter said the Tamworth Water Security Alliance would push for changes to recycling rules and changes to the Peel Valley Water Sharing Plan in their meeting with Mr Anderson, based on the mood of them room.

Professor Khan said he'd return to Tamworth in the future, if the alliance planned a second forum on the issue.

Former member for New England Tony Windsor had been scheduled to moderate the event, but health problems in the family prevented him from doing so.

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