WAKOOL Shire Council has lashed out at the State Government over a lack of funding for community projects aimed at limiting the adverse impacts of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
Earlier this week, the council received an email from NSW Trade and Investment notifying that only two of its 19 applications to fund projects under the Murray-Darling Basin Regional Economic Diversification Fund had been successful.
The $32.5 million fund was designed to diversify local economies to insulate them from the adverse social and economic effects of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan’s implementation — in particular that of its water buyback scheme.
The Wakool shire has been one of the most severely impacted local government areas in NSW, with buybacks of local water properties estimated to have caused almost 500 job losses.
Wakool Mayor Neil Gorey said not only was the funding insufficient to deal with the problem, it was unclear which were the two projects that had been approved.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (May 13).
