1. Moree Plains Shire Council’s Water Group Manager David Wolfenden, left, General Manager Lester Rogers, Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall, Lands and Water Minister Niall Blair and Deputy Premier Troy Grant pictured at Biniguy today, which is one of the communities hoping to receive a reticulated water supply soon.
2. Deputy Premier Tory Grant, left, Lands and Water Minister Niall Blair, Uralla Shire Mayor Mick Pearce, Deputy Mayor Bob Crouch and Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall in Bundarra today discussing the proposed Bundarra Sewerage System.
Monday, 29 February 2016
DEPUTY Premier Troy Grant, Minister for Lands and Water Niall Blair and Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall today announced that Moree Plains and Uralla Shire Councils have been invited to provide detailed proposals on infrastructure projects as part of the NSW Government’s $110 million funding boost for water and wastewater projects.
Mr Grant said the NSW Government was determined to make sure regional NSW had the right infrastructure for communities to have access to clean and secure drinking water.
“The fact that there are still communities that do not have modern systems to safely manage effluent is just not on, but this will go a long way to addressing the backlog in our country towns,” Mr Grant said.
Mr Blair said that “For too long quick fixes and band aid solutions have been the norm when it comes to regional water and wastewater – but now we are delivering the right infrastructure to make sure our regional communities can grow and prosper.
“This is just another example of how the NSW Government, through Restart NSW, is providing the funds needed to deliver essential water and wastewater infrastructure in regional communities.”
Mr Marshall said there were four projects across the Moree and Uralla local government areas now on the state’s funding shortlist – Moree, Ashley and Biniguy water supply upgrades and the new Bundarra sewerage system installation.
“Funding opportunities like this will be of huge benefit to these communities and to the councils which have had these projects on their books for some time,” Mr Marshall said.
“Our country communities are entitled to good quality water and sewer infrastructure and I’ll now be doubling my efforts to ensure funding is forthcoming so these important projects can proceed.
“I’ve already taken up the cause for the Biniguy water supply and while I’m delighted to see it and three other towns have made it onto the shortlist, I will be pressuring the government to fund them all.”
Together, the four projects are worth more than $18 million.
The Regional Water and Waste Water Backlog Program enables local water utilities to construct modern water and sewerage infrastructure and associated works to provide safe, secure and reliable water and sewerage services for their communities.
This is the second stage of the program and follows an expressions of interest process, which ran in 2015 to shortlist 45 projects.
A full list of the projects is available at www.water.nsw.gov.au/urban-water/regional-water-and-waste-water-backlog-program