(Officially no climate change in Australia) but Queensland towns are running out of water
Queensland towns face million-dollar water-carting bills if rain stays away, Brisbane Times, By Tony Moore
More than 65 per cent of Queensland, including Ipswich, Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim councils on Brisbane’s doorstep, is drought-declared.
The worst case is Stanthorpe, one of Queensland’s premier tourism and wine regions, in the Southern Downs Regional Council area.
Southern Downs mayor Tracy Dobie said Stanthorpe was on track to run out of water by Christmas, leaving ratepayers with a hefty bill to cart water from Warwick. “We are estimating something between half a million dollars to a million dollars per month just to cart water,” she said.
“That is a sizeable chunk for a regional council with 19,000 ratepayers and an annual budget of $70 million.”
Warwick would run out of water by December 2020 if it did not receive significant rainfall over summer, Cr Dobie said.
“The Warwick situation is worse than Stanthorpe,” she said.
“The only way we can do it, if it doesn’t rain, is establishing new bores and pumping.” In the Toowoomba Regional Council area, water is being carted to Cecil Downs, while water has also been carted to Hodgson Vale, Cambooya and Clifton as bores run dry.
Ipswich and Lockyer Valley councils are close to carting water to some regional areas, but at this stage are meeting water demand from dam supplies.
There are as yet no water restrictions on south-east Queensland homes.
Over the Great Dividing Range, regions face extreme water restrictions.
Stanthorpe and Warwick residents already face “extreme-level” water restrictions of 120 litres per person a day, the same as Brisbane during the drought of 2008. Cr Dobie said the cost of carting water was significant for smaller councils.
“We have these councils west of the Great Dividing Range and in New South Wales that have really small rate bases and don’t have the money to build their own infrastructure,” she said.
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