NSW councils are being encouraged to apply for a share of $30 million in joint federal and state funding to reduce future natural disaster risks.
Eligible organisations, including local councils, local Aboriginal land councils, joint organisations, and regional organisations of councils, can apply for grants between $50,000 and $1.5 million through the jointly funded Disaster Risk Reduction Fund.
The Disaster Risk Reduction Fund offers three streams of funding totalling $52 million and is designed to reduce the risk of future natural disasters and build resilience across NSW.
The first stream, the $18 million State Disaster Risk Reduction stream, closed on 21 March 2022, with projects commencing from 1 July 2022.
This second stream, the Local and Regional stream, will support and strongly encourage partnership and collaboration for the purpose of maximising the reach and efficacy of strategic, targeted, place-based risk reduction projects.
Applications can be made through Resilience NSW and will be accepted up until 30 June.
In other disaster mitigation funding news, 15 national projects received funding of $9.39 million under the Disaster Risk Reduction Package on 31 March 2022.
Funding was allocated to a range of initiatives, several of which also support the implementation of the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements.
A list of approved projects can be found on the National Recovery and Resilience Agency website.
About $6.2 million remains available for national projects under the Disaster Risk Reduction Package, with a final funding round expected to open late in 2022.