Water In A Dry Land.

This is the ever increasing view of our water storage dams in Australia.

Water In A Dry Land.

I have written before about the fact that Australia is amongst the
driest continents on Earth, besides the shortage of water for
agricultural use, there is a huge shortfall in water to service the
towns and cities of an ever increasing number of areas.

This shortage of water has grown to include the whole of SE Qld,
Brisbane, the capital City is included in this area, and has been hit
by increased costs for water as well as the worsening restrictions
for usage.

There have been many studies done looking for best solutions to
the problem of water shortages, amongst many others the need
for more storage dams has been near the top of the list.

There have been many other suggestions like the installation of
domestic rain-water tanks, desalination plants for sea water,
purification plants for treatment of sewage, pipelines to move
water from the wetter areas to the dry spots.

To put it simply, if oil or gas was found in North QLD the Govt.
would build a pipeline immediately to SE QLD;

Water is one of the biggest assets of tropical Nth QLD, surely
building a pipeline south from far Nth QLD would be cheaper and
more beneficial than more dams in SE QLD. where many of the
existing dams have had little or no run-off for several years and
are at record low levels.

A pipeline from North Qld.at least taps into a different
catchment area, extending the pipeline to Sydney could also
then give QLD further revenue opportunities.

As with any project which demands changes people of course
have the habit of looking at things with tunnel vision and from
their own point of view, meaning that if you are on severe water
restrictions your view is substantially different to someone
whose property is to be resumed for the purpose of building a
new dam.

We in the Mary Valley, where I live, are currently embroiled in
this sort of conflict with the dramatically opposed people
getting quite noisy onthe subject.

This is made more controversial by the fact that our Mary
Valley area is not badly affected by water shortages, the water
will be used to a large degree in other parts of SE Qld.

A new dam has been proposed in the Mary Valley

The State Government has announced plans for a new dam on
the Mary River near Gympie, to service southeast Queensland’s
increasing water needs.

The proposal would see a 600,000 megalitre dam covering 7,600
hectares built at Traveston Crossing.

The Cooloola region is rich farming land, supporting dairy, beef
and horticulture farms – and an increasing number of hobby
farmers heading to the northern end of the Sunshine Coast
looking for a ‘tree change’.

However, Cooloola Mayor Mick Vernados, whose shire includes
the Mary Valley, says several smaller dams may be a better
alternative than one large dam.

Recreational fisherman and tackle shop owner Ben Shorten says
a new water impoundment could bring tourist dollars and new
industries to Cooloola.

As would be expected the people with a vested interest,
property owners and residents of the proposed flooding are
loudly banging the “No Dams” drum, and of course there are
legitimate complaints about the chosen location.