The Morrison and Berejiklian Governments will deliver a $1 billion water infrastructure package for rural and regional communities impacted by the devastating drought in NSW.
\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Deputy Premier John Barilaro said both Liberal and Nationals governments had been working together to fund critical water infrastructure projects, including new and expanded dam projects.
\n\u201cOur response to the ongoing drought impacting rural and regional communities is comprehensive and committed. It deals with immediate needs for financial assistance in and longer term investments to build drought resilience for the future,\u201d the Prime Minister said.
\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s not set and forget. We are continually adding to our drought response, saying loud and clear that we\u2019re backing Australians who are battling the drought.
\n\u201cTogether we\u2019ll deliver a $650 million upgrade of Wyangala Dam in the state\u2019s Central West and a $480 million new Dungowan Dam near Tamworth.
\n\u201cOur 50\/50 investment with the state government in these priority large-scale water infrastructure projects will free up NSW funding to allow them to progress critical town water projects across NSW. We want to get these projects underway because this is about water supply and security.
\n\u201cThese projects don\u2019t happen overnight but we\u2019re working as quickly as possible to get all the necessary work done so we can start digging.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re also investing an initial $24 million on a 50\/50 basis with NSW for the 100,000-megalitre proposed Border Rivers project on the Mole River, near the Queensland border. This will ensure the project is shovel ready and help to identify the potential benefits that could flow on to irrigators and local communities in NSW and potentially Queensland.
\n\u201cThis funding brings our water infrastructure commitments to $1.5 billion across 21 projects that are committed or underway. This is part of more than $7 billion in drought support funding that we are already providing and have committed.\u201d
\nMs Berejiklian said the NSW Government has already committed close to $3 billion to drought relief and water security since 2017.
\n\u201cIn partnership with the Commonwealth, we will build the first new dam in NSW for more than 30 years. The last was Split Rock Dam on the Manilla River in 1987. That\u2019s why today\u2019s announcement is historic,\u201d Ms Berejiklian said.
\n\u201cThe NSW Government is working in lockstep with the Commonwealth to make absolutely certain all obstacles are cleared and these dams get built.
\n\u201cOur regional and rural communities are doing it incredibly tough and that\u2019s why we\u2019re making this massive additional investment in partnership with the Commonwealth Government.
\n\u201cThis builds on the NSW Government\u2019s record $3 billion in drought support and water security announced since 2017, including funding for 60 bores across 23 communities and 14 pipelines, such as that from Wentworth to Broken Hill.
\n\u201cDams and other water infrastructure are an important part of the mix when it comes to increasing supply and reliability so that NSW\u2019s water supply is more resilient to the terrible drought being experienced across the eastern states.\u201d
\nDeputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the funding would prioritise all necessary business case development and design works.
\n\u201cWe are already making significant investments in water infrastructure capital projects nationwide and today\u2019s announcement signals a major acceleration of that commitment,\u201d the Deputy Prime Minister said.
\n\u201cNo one should doubt our commitment to getting these sorts of projects done in partnership with all states and territories \u2013 our $1.3 billion National Water Infrastructure Development Fund and $2 billion National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility are in place to deliver the planning, assessment and construction work needed to build the water infrastructure of the 21st century.
\n\u201cThese projects will fit into our strategic plan for improving regional water security through water infrastructure led by the National Water Grid Authority.\u201d
\nDeputy Premier and Minister for Regional New South Wales John Barilaro said the NSW Government has been getting on with building critical water infrastructure projects but this was a significant turning point to future-proof the state.
\n\u201cOnly last week I was pleased to officially switch on the $12.85 million Malpas Dam to Guyra pipeline in the Northern Tablelands region, a project completed on time and under budget by the NSW Government,\u201d the Deputy Premier said.
\n\u201cThis partnership with the Federal Liberal and Nationals Government will mean more projects, in faster time frames.
\n\u201cOur priority is to get these major projects off the ground as quickly as possible, to combat \u2018day zero\u2019 and help regional and rural communities in NSW get through this devastating drought.\u201d
\nFormalised agreements between the Federal and NSW Governments outlining the timeframes will be finalised shortly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Morrison and Berejiklian Governments will deliver a $1 billion water infrastructure package for rural and regional communities impacted by the devastating drought in NSW. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Deputy Premier John Barilaro said both Liberal and Nationals governments had been working together … Continue reading “Billion-dollar investment in NSW dams”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}