The NSW Government is providing $5 million for councils to take immediate action to ease the impact of bushfires on coastal waterways.
Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock said the NSW Government is committed to supporting councils to mitigate the effects of the recent bushfires on sensitive estuary ecosystems.
"We're putting $5 million on the table for councils to immediately implement strategies to stem the impacts from the recent unprecedented bushfires," Mrs Hancock said.
"The effects of the bushfires have the potential to degrade coastal waterways by impacting water quality and coastal ecosystems which in turn has the potential to impact estuary environments and local industries such as tourism and aquaculture.
"Councils must move quickly to stem these impacts which is why we are providing such significant funding."
The Bushfire Affected Coastal Waterways Program funding round will be open for applications from councils for six weeks until 10 March 2020 or until the $5 million allocation has been exhausted.
Activities eligible for funding include but are not limited to:
- sediment and erosion control actions
- dune management and restoration
- estuarine foreshore restoration
- littoral rainforest regeneration and restoration
- coastal wetland restoration
- habitat restoration
- riparian corridor management
- water quality monitoring to determine the impacts of recent fire activity
- other post-fire actions that minimise further environmental impacts on coastal waterways and estuaries.
