Tap turned off on govt water scheme

The rebate scheme, which was due to close on April 30, 2021, or when the funding allocation was exhausted, whichever came first, ended abruptly in mid-May due to the high volume of applications received.

The scheme covered 25 per cent up to a maximum of $25,000 for the purchase, delivery and installation of new water infrastructure to address animal welfare and permanent planting water needs and improve resilience to drought.

Fitzgerald Biosphere Group (FBG) executive officer Leonie McMahon told Farm Weekly the oversubscription had come at a time when the State's farmers were in desperate need of help.

The FBG, which services the Shire of Jerramungup and parts of Ravensthorpe recently had a third area, Gairdner become the eleventh area in the State to be declared water deficient.

"The issue in the Jerramungup Shire is that we are halfway through our third year of well below average rainfall," Ms McMahon said.

"An almost complete lack of run off means many dry dams have been cleaned but they remain empty.

"Water availability has become a critical issue for virtually all of our farmers now."

Ms McMahon said the quick depletion of funds was an indication of the size of the need in Western Australia.

"A lot of people had been doing longer term planning for water infrastructure on their farms and that scheme helped them with that," she said.

"There will no doubt be people out there who budgeted for work to take place on the assumption that the rebate would be available and they have carried out those works, but now they're not going to get any of the rebate."

Highlighting that the rebate scheme opened a few months later in WA compared to the other States, Ms McMahon said WA applicants had been put at a disadvantage from the outset.

"WA farmers only had about six weeks leading up to June 30 to submit claims for that financial year," Ms McMahon said.

"So it was a mad scramble to prepare and submit their applications for that financial year and once it passed, those people couldn't submit anything in the subsequent financial year."

Ms McMahon said the dry years had been compounded by the closure of the Farm Rebate Scheme, which was run under the previous government.

"It would be great to see the State government's old water infrastructure rebate scheme reinstated, as the lack of water for firefighting is also a major concern for us."

When asked by Farm Weekly if more funds would be allocated to the Federal rebate scheme, Federal Minister for Water Keith Pitt said the government committed $50 million to the scheme and had delivered on that commitment.

"I acknowledge the drought continues to have a devastating impact on many farmers around the country which is why our government is delivering more than $8 billion to fund programs that assist them," Mr Pitt said.

"Along with my ministerial colleagues, I will continue to work with my State counterparts to do what we can to further support our farmers in this time of need."

Hyden farmers Tracey and Tyron Utley, who received a small amount of funding from the Federal government rebate scheme before it became oversubscribed said it had enabled them to do "that little bit more" than they would have otherwise.

The couple used the funds to install pipes across their farm to fill the dams to supply stock and spray water.

"After seeing how badly they were hit over east with drought, we've taken that as a warning to drought and future proof our property as best we can, so we know at least our sheep will have water,'' Ms Utley said.

"Ideally our long-term goal would be to get a desalination plant because a lot of the water that we find out here is salty.

"But they aren't cheap and the other big concern, which I don't think has been fully considered by the State government, is the waste water.

"You get highly saline wastewater out of it and you can't just pop it back into the salt systems, so where do you put it?

"Desalination plants are still not the saviour of it all so I think we need to look at the issue more broadly."