Drought Priorities

THIS weekend the federal government announced additional funding for drought affected areas, including grants of $1 million to local government areas.

The Upper Hunter Shire Council was identified as a Council which may be eligible for a grant  to support infrastructure and upgrades including carting water.

Steve McDonald, general manager for the Upper Hunter Shire Council said they were one of 60 Councils which may be eligible, but there was a lot of criteria to meet.

“We have to now review the criteria and we have staff working on that at the moment to look at how we can meet the criteria and then we need to look at our options and priorities,”

“There are a list of projects which we will present to Councillors at the next Council briefing, which is next week and once we have agreed what those priorities are we can look at applying,” he said.

“There are things like water carting, potential infrastructure for standpipes, pipeline projects to improve resilience going forward and there are a whole range of things we are looking at for the short term and longer term,” he said.

In Murrurundi the Council has been drilling test bores to identify a possible water source for the township, with some described as promising; the results are expected next week.