TAMWORTH Regional Council (TRC) has voted in favour of multi-pronged drought support initiative for its farming community.
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In the next couple of weeks, council will open-up standpipe hydrants in each of the town’s and villages in the region for people to be able to access up to 1000 litres of free, treated water.
It’s understood this will begin as soon as seven new standpipes are purchased.
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The water will be available during business hours and could run until communities hit level four restrictions.
On top of this, revenue earned from the sale water at the Lockheed Street refill station will be donated to the R U Aware, We Care campaign.
Water Director Bruce Logan said revenue from these sales in the last three months totalled about $45,000, including $19,000 in July.
It’s understood these donations will begin from the end of August.
It is suggested this contribution would end when more than 50 per cent of the council area is no longer drought declared.
Waste fees for things like silage and feed wraps will also be waived.
On the back of a “story in the media of a family that were having to wash clothes in their used bath water in order to save on consumption”, council will also open its pools, and potentially the Sports Dome, for people limiting their water use to have showers.
While TRC is set to roll out the measures as soon as possible, there was a fairly open-ended attitude attached to the scheme.
“We can review this if we need to,” mayor Col Murray said
“I feel there’s a lot more drought left and I would say it’s inevitable.”
Mark Rodda said the council support was well-timed and should go some way to mitigating the effect of drought in the smaller communities.
“It’s not belated like other tiers of government have been with assistance,” he said.
“We’ve acknowledged things are dire and identified support for rural users.”
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