News of $1 billion worth of dams has been hailed a step in the right direction by some, but others say it will be cold comfort to basin irrigators who won't be seeing any of the flow-on benefits.
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Build More Dams president and Griffith City councillor Dino Zappacosta said he always welcomed the prospect of more dams, but wished they could be built closer to home.
"I'm pleased for the people it's going to benefit, but my concern is that it's not going to create more water for the Murray Darling Basin area," he said.
"The government's mindset is looking at established areas and extending walls or building new dams close to existing ones such as the Dungowan dam but we're still not capitalising on water we should be capitalising on."
Councillor Zappacosta said he would continue to advocate for more dams to capture water from the east of the dividing range and divert it towards the Murray Darling Basin.
Half of the $1 billion funding comes out of federal government coffers and the other half comes from the NSW Government.
The funding includes a $480 million new Dungowan Dam near Tamworth, along with a a $650 million upgrade of Wyangala Dam in the NSW Central West.
These will be the first dams built in NSW since 1987, but Member for Murray Helen Dalton dismissed the dams as too little too late.
"I'd hardly call that proactive... Kylie Minogue's Locomotion was topping the charts when government last built a dam," Mrs Dalton said.
"It's no use promising to build dams in the future when right now you're pushing ahead with plans to flush an extra 450 gigalitres of our productive water to South Australia."
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NSW Farmers president James Jackson said it was "dam good news for the long term", but said there still needed to be more short-term relief for drought-stricken communities.
"[The] announcement from the Prime Minister and the Premier is welcome news, but for the long term," Mr Jackson said.
"There is a need for water now and we call on both Governments to continue to work collaboratively with and providing funding to Local Shires who are building pipelines and trucking in water at significant cost."
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