It comes as the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water outlines changes to make it easier for landholders to lawfully take small volumes of water to fight bushfires that threaten their land.

Current laws allow rural fire brigades and their officers to take water from a source to extinguish or control a fire without a license.

However, there are currently no provisions for farmers or landholders to extract water from rivers or aquifers to help them prepare for imminent or active fires on their own land without holding costly water licenses.

Landholders are only exempt if there is an emergency and have received a lawful direction from an authorised officer.

NSW Irrigator's council CEO Claire Miller says the last thing farmers and landholders need when faced with the threat of fire is to be concerned with legal red tape.

"Legally you can't take water unless you have a license, exemption or water right which means when a bushfire comes and they use water, they could be in breach of the law," Ms Miller said.

"That is a ridiculous burden to be under in an emergency.

"This proposal is trying to clear up that anomaly and we certainly support that."

She said the process needs to be straight forward and streamlined in order to be effective well in advance of a threat from fire.

"We can't have landholders left in situations where a fire is coming and they are waiting to hear if they can have access," she said.

"It should be a straight forward process, with direction from authorised officers made days before the fire hits.

"We don't want them to have to fill out forms or account for the water they use," she said.

"I'm glad the department feels the same because making the administrative process around this as simple as possible is crucial."

The department is encouraging residents to have their say on the proposed changes by May 6.

If implemented, it would later be reviewed to determine whether it should transition to a basic landholder right under the Water Management Act 2000.

"A technical advisory group has been set-up to tackle this head on," executive director of strategy and policy Kaia Hodge said.

"It includes developing ways to cut the red tape and remove the cost burden for landholders and farmers.

"But it's also important any changes to the regulations do not have any major impacts on the environment or other water users, which is why they need to be carefully considered and managed responsibly," she said.

To have your say visit: https://water.dpie.nsw.gov.au/our-work/allocations-availability/drought-and-floods/water-for-bushfire-preparedness-and-firefighting

Last month local RFS and farmers welcomed a trial allowing unregistered vehicles on public roads to combat fire events.