THE federal government funding for an expansion of Dungowan Dam could be taken away if the project doesn’t get moving soon, New England MP Barnaby Joyce has warned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Seventy-five million dollars was put on the table by the federal government in 2016 to upgrade the dam from 6.3 gigalitres to 44 gigalitres.
However, the $150 million project cannot go ahead without funding from the NSW government.
Read more:
Mr Joyce said the federal funding pledge could disappear without movement and implored the $75 million to be spent.
“Seventy-five million dollars I had on the table, we got the federal budget coming up, use the money,” he said.
“I fought for that, I want it spent, if you don’t get it spent it’ll get it taken away.
“I’m not saying anything remarkable there, you either spend the money or they’ll take it away and where it’ll go, I don’t know.”
Mr Joyce, a former federal water minister, said he wanted funding to be used in Tamworth and warned there mightn’t be a second-chance to secure money for Dungowan Dam.
“I fought for that money for Tamworth, I want it spent in Tamworth,” he said.
“I can’t do anything about it now, if they say ‘we gave you $75 million, you’ve had it on the table for a couple of years, you don’t want it, we’ll have it back’.”
Tamworth Regional Council director of water Bruce Logan said the city’s water supply was secure for the next 20 or 30 years without an expansion of Dungowan Dam.
However, he said there was a need to start preparing for future growth.
“The lead time will be significant,” Mr Logan said.
“If you wait until the day you need it, you’ll have waited too long.
“We want to see the Tamworth community continue to grow and obviously water is going to be an issue into the future if it does grow.
“Our projections are that we’ve got enough water for the next 20 or 30 years without the Dungowan Dam upgrade, but we should start now looking at what we’re going to be doing in 20 or 30 years to provide more water for the town.”
Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson wouldn’t comment on whether the state government was ready to fund the dam expansion and was yet to the read the feasibility study on the proposal.
Mr Anderson said “water security was paramount” for the city but wanted to see the data from the study.