Central West Drought Resilience Plan to support Future Ready communities

Preparing for a hot and dry climate 

El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) tend to draw rain away from Australia, and such events increase the risk of extreme temperature shifts, like heatwaves and hotter days.

Parts of NSW local government areas have been declared in drought by the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Actions towards strong drought resilience and preparedness plans are needed to mitigate the impact of drought on farmers, wider communities, and the regional economies. 

Jointly funded by the Australian Government and the NSW Government under the Future Drought Fund, Bathurst Regional, Lithgow City and Oberon Councils have jointly engaged WSP to develop a Central West Drought Resilience Plan to build communities’ economic, environmental and social resilience to future droughts, and provide advice to each Council on its implementation. 

The project included research of historical and future climate impacts on the region, and stakeholder and community consultation across all Local Government Areas to ensure the lessons of the millennial drought, and other recent drought experiences are considered and learnings from those experiences are included in the Central West Drought Resilience Plan. The plan will also be informed by feedback from the CSIRO.

Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty said the Regional Drought Resilience Program supports regional communities, farmers and industry to prepare for the future.

"It is vital that regional NSW communities have the support to develop community-driven drought plans that work for their local areas," Ms Moriarty said.

"These plans will help support regional communities when drought occurs, and help to address drought impacts across a range of sectors to improve the way natural resources are managed in each region."

All Councils see the development of the Central West Drought Resilience Plan as a positive outcome for the area and a chance to highlight not only the synergies between our communities, but the fact our Councils often are called to assist each other and have developed highly effective working relationships, particularly during recent events.

Regional Drought Resilience Plans are community-led plans that identify priority actions to enable regional communities prepare for future droughts. The plans will present:

• historical and predicted impacts of drought in each region

• an evidence-based, triple-bottom-line strategy to mitigate or adapt to future drought impacts

• a prioritised list of actions and pathways to build drought resilience, specific to the region and addresses the needs of the community

WSP is proud to contribute to these future ready plans with our knowledge and experience in climate change and resilience.   

We help our clients and communities implement low carbon and climate resilient strategies across key market sectors as well as plan for, navigate and adapt to our changing climate and the extreme weather events that come with it. Read more about our Climate Change and Resilience services.