A key requirement under the new rules was that water users needed to test their meters to ensure they're operating properly - however with zero allocations as a result of the drought, it was impossible for people to comply by the December 1, 2019 deadline.

READ MORE: Water users raise concerns about meeting new water metering rules by December

"The testing requirements under the new rule is that wet tests needed to be done, but we don't have allocation for that," GVIA executive officer Zara Lowien said.

The new start date will now be December 1, 2020 for surface water pumps 500mm and above, which applies to the majority of water users in the Gwydir Valley.

"We welcomed [the decision] in the sense that it gave water users a more realistic time frame to ensure they're compliant, but we're disappointed it took this amount of time to make it and put a lot of people under a lot of undue pressure in the interim," Ms Lowien said.

"We're hoping 12 months will be appropriate, hopefully we'll have water available by then."

Prior to the government's deadline extension announcement, GVIA had released two videos outlining their concerns over the government's lack of a decision which was exposing all water users in NSW to non-compliance to their licence conditions.

In addition to the fact that there's no water available to test meters, the government is still yet to release a list of approved data loggers and telemetry and until they do, no water user can be compliant with the new rules.

"Metering sites cannot be compliant, unless approved units are installed," Ms Lowien said.

"Our members have been busy working towards compliance, independently checking their meters, making them more secure and replacing meters that didn't meet the new requirements for accuracy or installation.

"We've supported the metering reforms as a way to improve community confidence in how much water is used for irrigation, despite knowing we already had the most modern metering fleet commercially available at the time.

"All meters already having data loggers and around 20 per cent of water users in our region already have some form of existing telemetry that's also integrated into their farm. We want to make sure the government process value adds to that."

The release of approved data loggers and telemetry devices is expected in November and once that comes through, water users will have a year to ensure their site meets the new Australian standards.

"The extra time provides a bit more flexibility to make sure our members are compliant and we don't have to pull out good existing devices that's already there," Ms Lowien said.

"We don't want people to be non-compliant through no fault of their own."

Ms Lowien encourages all water users to be aware of the roll-out dates, which are:

More information on NSW's metering reform can be found at www.industry.nsw.gov.au/water-reform/metering-framework