New Dungowan Dam announcement
The Dungowan Dam upgrade is good news but of course will require lots of inflows which is not forecast. And it will give existing residents access to water which they deserve/need however not a green light for more and more development.
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Tamworth's growth should be slowed to a sustainable amount otherwise same problems occur again.
We will support candidates at next year's election who favour a much slower rate of growth and a slower rate of using up our resources.
Graeme Reeves,
Calala
I was pleased to hear about the announcement of a new dam at Dungowan to help future proof Tamworth's water supply. I remember Barnaby Joyce previously mentioning that hydro electricity could be built into an upgrade of this dam as base power.
Is this going to be included in the build and will this take pressure off Nundle/Hanging Rock residents who face the prospect of a 97 x 220 meter high wind farm bordering National Parks and a Nature Reserve on the skyline above the town?
Kerry Fitts,
Nundle
The state's peak business organisation, the NSW Business Chamber, welcomes the commitment of the Australian and State Governments to proceed with increasing water storage capacity to future proof drought stricken regional NSW. The impact of the drought is going far beyond the farm gate.
The outcomes of the NSW Business Chamber Drought Survey identified 84 per cent of businesses in regional NSW have been negatively affected by drought, while almost 70 per cent of affected businesses indicated their local economy had been weakened. The impact of the drought cannot be overstated and is continuing to hurt business confidence right across the state.
Locally, level 5 water restrictions not only impact resident consumption, but employment with many businesses having trade restricted to match water requirements.
The proposed $480 Million Dungowan Dam is only possible through the government's asset recycling committed to in the 2015 election and the Restart NSW Fund.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and New England MP Barnaby Joyce made the multi-million-dollar announcement at a tour of the existing Dungowan Dam. If delivered on time and on budget, this project will not only secure water for the city, it will give confidence to business. Population growth is only a result of a thriving regional economy backed by strong local employment.
Driving investment and industry development is central to our success, however without additional water security like Dungowan Dam, new business would be reluctant to consider Tamworth
With this project being classified as Critical State Significant Infrastructure, the planning department will be able to fast track the proposal and help keep the project to the four year timeline. This gives confidence to the business community that our water security and economic prosperity won't be hamstrung in court for many years.
Joe Townsend
Regional Manager of the New England North West NSW Business Chamber
Drought problems solved and according to Barnaby, the Coalition won't "risk annihilation in the bush". But wait! Dams need water to be of use.
More dams don't make more water and neither does rain, the science behind which Barnaby, the government and voters who return them to power, haven't yet grasped.
NSW has currently 2,250 dams, weirs catchments and barrages. Of these, 135 are considered major water storage facilities.
Most are at catastrophically low levels and many are bone dry because there is not enough rain. Australian national climate projections indicate that over the coming decades we will spend more time in drought. Scott Morrison tell us "business as usual will not hurt us so stop stressing".
So, if with "business as usual" we aren't filling the dams we have already got, we can't make any more water than currently exists on our planet.
We have disrupted the critical condensation stage of the water cycle that produces rain; over allocated water for irrigation; engineered conditions to the extent we can expect more frequent and severe droughts in the future; where will the water to fill yet more dams come from?
Until the government is prepared to honestly address this question, listen and learn from the science, we are on track to repeat the same mistakes that got us into this crisis in the first place, with even more devastating repercussions.
Jan Kleeman,
Donald Creek
