Parkes Mayor Neil Westcott, Member for Orange Philip Donato MP, Lachlan Mayor John Medcalf OAM.
Member for Orange Philip Donato MP, joined with mayors of Lachlan and Parkes Shires, calling on the NSW Government to urgently fund repair of critical water infrastructure which was damaged in the 2022 Central West Flood Event.
“The flood event of 14th November 2022 ravaged communities across the Central West, causing unprecedented damage to property – including critical water infrastructure, “said Mr Donato.
“I am extremely grateful to both our state and federal governments for their rapid support and the essential disaster funding they’ve so far delivered to help our region rebuild in the wake of this devastating natural disaster.
“Unfortunately, existing flood recovery funding measures have failed to incorporate the repair or replacement of critical water and sewer assets that were damaged or destroyed in the 2022 Central West Flood Event,” Mr Donato said.
Mr Donato is the chair of the Central West Community Leaders Forum, whose charter is to direct federal and state government disaster funding through the NSW Reconstruction Authority to flood- impacted communities of the Central West following the November 2022 flood event. It was identified that local government’s flood-damaged or destroyed critical water and sewer infrastructure did not fit any existing criteria of funding, although the Northern Rivers flood event benefited from government funding for flood-damaged critical water and sewer infrastructure Repair. Mr Donato has raised this issue on this on the floor of NSW Parliamen.
Mayor of Parkes, Cr Neil Westcott said “We are not asking for special favours, our assets are no less destroyed than the northern rivers and they were fully funded by the NSW Government”. “Water supply to a town is surely essential infrastructure. Our peak supply has been reduced by 30%, we cannot afford to fix it, we need Government help, this is a very serious issue,” Mayor Neil Westcott said.