Community input sought for draft Regional Drought Resilience Plan
Published: 19 Jul 2024 11:07am
Residents living within the Wagga Wagga and Lockhart local government areas are called to assist in the development of a draft Regional Drought Resilience Plan through sharing of knowledge and ideas.
As part of the NSW Government’s Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program, Wagga Wagga City Council, in partnership with Lockhart Shire Council, is required to develop a plan that will support drought resilience in our communities.
At its Ordinary Meeting on Monday 29 January 2024, Council resolved to accept a grant of $450,000 from the program which is co-funded by the NSW Government and the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
The two Councils, known as Eastern Riverina for the purpose of the plan, will commence community and stakeholder consultation in the coming weeks to develop the draft plan.
Wagga Wagga City Council’s Manager City Growth & Regional Assets Ben Creighton says it is important that we get input from the community to ensure a wide scope of ideas.
“The aim of the Eastern Riverina Drought Resilience Plan will be to outline strategies that will support the communities living in the two local government areas during times of drought,” Mr Creighton said.
“This will be in the form of three key focus areas: Community – ensuring residents have access to support systems, Environment – water security and encouraging the use of sustainable practices, and Economy – ensuring economic stability during drought.
“We will be holding a series of community engagement opportunities in Wagga Wagga, Tarcutta, Lockhart and The Rock, as well as online engagement, in order to gather knowledge and ideas from the people that drought affects the most.”
These workshops will be held on 8 and 9 August, with details on the locations and times to be finalised.
The two Councils will collate the information gathered from the community and stakeholders and use it to identify key concerns and areas of improvement for drought resilience that need to be addressed in the plan.
A draft Eastern Riverina Drought Resilience Plan is expected to be exhibited to the public in October 2024.