A 22 per cent rise in rural water prices could drown farmersin debt and strip many farms of the water needed to produce food and fibre, thestate's peak farm body has said.
According to official documents issued today, WaterNSW hassubmitted a proposal to the state government to increase rural water prices byan average of 22 per cent each year from 2025 to 2030.
NSW Farmers Water Taskforce Chair Richard Bootle said a 22per cent increase in rural water prices would be catastrophic for the state'sfarming communities, who needed the water to feed and clothe the nation.
"Governments are buying up the water farmers need, and now,there's a plan to push up the prices of what limited water's left for them touse on farm," Mr Bootle said.
"The cost of other key inputs such as fertiliser has alreadyskyrocketed to unprecedented levels, and amidst these huge pressures, we get sluggedwith this bill.
"It's not fair, it's not feasible, and it's certain to put achokehold on farmers who rely on our precious natural water resources to growthe healthy plants and animals our consumers need."
Capping rural water prices at more sustainable levels wasessential, Mr Bootle said, as well as implementing smarter solutions to waterrecovery throughout the Murray Darling Basin, if farming communities were tosurvive.
"Buying up water, adding costly new regulations on watermanagement and then charging farmers an arm and a leg for what's left isn't theway forward to managing our water," Mr Bootle said.
"As we begin to understand the full detail of what's beingproposed, it remains critical that we consider smarter solutions for sharingand recovering water costs, or else farmers and regions will not be able tokeep their head above water.
"If any other service increased their prices this much, youwould take your business elsewhere - but farmers only have one option and oneway to get the vital resource that is our precious water, so they must be ableto afford it."
