No changes to Peel and Namoi draft water sharing plan, despite current water shortage

The draft Namoi and Peel water sharing plans were unveiled at a public consultation meeting in Tamworth on Wednesday. The plans propose no changes to the rules around water extraction.

Given the current water shortages across the region, council water director Bruce Logan questioned the wisdom behind the decision.

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"Why are we introducing an unchanged water sharing plan in the middle of the worst drought on record in the North West," Mr Logan said.

"It's unchanged. We followed the rules in the water sharing plan at the moment and it got us in to this situation.

"We're not going to change anything, and that will be in place for the next 10 years, and we're going to hope that if this same situation happens again it'll be better?"

Mr Logan suggested holding off on implementing any new water sharing plan until 12 to 18 months after the drought had broken, "until we've learnt something from what we've experience this time".

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Inland water planning director for the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Peter Hyde, said he'd heard similar feedback from consultations across the state.

"We would argue our water sharing plans work 98 per cent of the time, right now we're in the two per cent," Mr Hyde said.

"The department is focused on what's happening now, how we manage the current critical situation. Once we're through the drought, we're going to have to revisit it regardless."

The Gunnedah meeting was postponed by the Department of Planning Industry and Environment because of "pressure" from the drought.