NSW Labor leader Chris Minn pledges $224m flood protection plan for Western Sydney

Evacuation roads and a series of property-protecting levees will be built across Western Sydney as part of a $225 million flood plan to be adopted if NSW Labor wins government.

Evacuation roads and a series of major property-protecting levees will be built across Western Sydney as part of a major $225 million flood plan to be adopted if NSW Labor wins government.

The maximum water cap­acity of Warragamba Dam will be lowered, while public access to Department of Primary Industries water gauges along rivers and creeks will be increased to help residents obtain real-time data to monitor rising flood levels.

In one of the first major policy commitments to be unveiled ahead of the March state election, Labor leader Chris Minns has also pledged to significantly improve communication infrastructure with self-powered, trailer-mounted, cell towers to be deployed to disaster areas to replace damaged or destroyed mobile phone towers.

And to ensure the Western Sydney Floods Resilience Plan is realised, Labor will spend the funding commitment within two years.

The announcement comes as the NSW government continues to refuse to release its evacuation and flood modelling report for the Hawkesbury and Nepean Valley, despite the detailed document guiding necessary mitigation works passing through Cabinet in January this year.

Residents look out toward flooded buildings next to the old Windsor Bridge earlier this month. Picture: AFP

The Department of Planning and Environment has declared the “draft” report will be reviewed once the findings from the independent flood inquiry chaired by Mary O’Kane have been presented.

Mr Minns, who will head out to the Hawkesbury on Sunday to meet with the community, said his plan would not only improve and bolster flood prevention and evacuation infrastructure across Western Sydney, but do so quickly.

“The fact of the matter is these communities will face continual flood risk – and we need urgent action and solutions that can be delivered right now, not in another decade,” he said.

During the February and March floods across the state, four people lost their lives and 169,000 people were forced to evacuate.

Another 4000 buildings were rendered uninhabitable, with the cost to state and federal governments for support and rebuild estimated at more than $8 billion.

The federal government has already made an initial commitment of $300 million in roads in the North West corridor, with NSW Labor seeking to partner with the Commonwealth in matching its roads funding announcement.

Under the plan, $200 million will be spent on identifying, planning, and starting work on critical evacuation roads and bridges, with another $24 million to go towards new levees at Peachtree Creek, McGraths Hill and Pitt Town.

The $1.3 million Peachtree Creek levee will help protect properties between the Nep­ean River and the Penrith CBD from backwater flooding.

The $8 million McGraths Hill levee will help protect residential properties against flooding up to the one-in-50-year event, while blocking flows that enter the suburb through low lying areas to the south and east.

The $9.6 million Pitt Town levee would flows that enter through low lying areas.

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Originally published as NSW Labor leader Chris Minn pledges $224m flood protection plan for Western Sydney