PURIFIED water could be the solution to the region's drought problems and Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) has called on state and federal governments to invest more money into the CSIRO.
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The council will make a submission to local government's peak event, to have the National General Assembly lobby for funds to improve water purification technology and build plants.
It doesn't mean drinking purified wastewater, but the drought demonstrated the need to be more innovative with water reuse, councillor Mark Rodda said.
"We know the day will come when we will be back in drought again, water is such a precious resource for country people, we need to do more than sending it to ponds and a reuse paddock to get rid of it," he said.
"Water recycling is the future, it's already been done successfully in European and some Asian countries.
"I'm not saying we need to be concerned about drinking something flushed down the toilet, we could use it for other purposes like roads or building construction."
The council voted to make the submission after drought across south-eastern Australia saw many communities faced with the prospect of running out of drinking water.
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The CSIRO's State of Climate Report 2020 suggests that with the effects of climate change, communities across Australia will be faced with drought more regularly and possibly to a more severe level.
Written by TRC strategy and performance executive manager Jason Collins, the submission argues recent state government work paints a "very dire situation" for drought in the state in the future.
"During the recent drought, many NSW towns faced the invidious consequences of current water management practices of state and Commonwealth governments by all but running out of water," he said.
"Over-allocation of surface and groundwater supplies means other sources of water to secure a communities water supply needs to be investigated."
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