Until now, Tamworth Regional Council has been unable to put a number to the economic effect of the 2017 to 2020 drought, but a report done by the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) in partnership with CSIRO has explored its impacts.

Council commissioned the study six months ago, in an effort to improve the region's water security and better plan for the future impacts of climate change.

Presenting quantifiable data on the drought's harrowing effects puts the council in a better position to secure funding for water security, according to director of water and waste Bruce Logan.

"We were hearing lot of anecdotal evidence about the effect of the drought, that people were closing businesses, they weren't employing anyone," he said.

"Rather than just presenting anecdotal evidence, we wanted to see if we could investigate just what the effect of the drought might be on the economy."

The study found there was about $70 million less value added to the economy in 2020 than in 2016, according to a report to council written by sustainability officer Louise Cadell.

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"The study found that the drought experienced by Tamworth in 2017 to 2020 was slightly less than a 1 in a 100 years event," she wrote.

"When the analysis looked at the region under the scope of climate change, it was found that the region will face a drought of a similar duration and intensity around 1 in 50 years."

Mr Logan said council will take the report to the federal and state water ministers and use it to advocate for water security projects, like a reverse osmosis plant and Dungowan Dam.

"This will be another opportunity for us to demonstrate to government that it costs money to have us in severe water restrictions for long periods of time and there are options to reduce the effect of drought," he said.

The report suggested that over the next 13 years the impact of the drought could be as much as $4 billion in lost production, if drought resilience doesn't increase, and the compounding effect of the 2017 to 2020 drought on the Tamworth economy could be about $420 million between 2022 and 2035.

Council will consider the report at Tuesday night's meeting, and decide whether to make it available to the public.

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