Good old Queensland, just when you thought we were catching up on the two decades worth of progress we missed out on under dictator Joh, our regressive nature comes back to kick sensibility and forward thinking right up the backside.
The people of Toowoomba this weekend had the chance to show Australia that hey, we’re not childish, we’re in the middle of the worst drought in a hundred years, we won’t be stupid enough to pass up on valuable water, we will stand up, show initiative and drink recycled water.
But alas. Campaigning on the “yuck” factor alone, the Toowomba dinosaurs who campaigned against drinking recycled water won a hollow victory. With only 18 months water supply left in the dams, Toowomba residents decided to pass up this most precious drought commodity just because they were too childish to drink water (not waste, fools!) which was recycled.
Water is water. Recycled or not, water is the end product. In a drought, with no foreseeable end in sight, does it matter how we derive it if the end product is the same? Have the 61% who voted no got another solution? NO. Have they a machine that can produce water from nothing? Magical water spells maybe? Rain dances?
No wonder those south of Tweed snigger at us for being unenlightened redneck banana benders. “Must be too much sun,” snigger snigger snigger.
Well sadly, they are right. But one day dinosaurs will become extinct, and those enlightened ones that remain will realise that a drought is a drought, water is water, and they will drink recycled water. Somewhere below us, sitting on his throne, the King of regressives Sir Joh is laughing.
Many people voted No, not because of any scare tactics, but because they had read the Council’s NWC funding application that Mayor Thorley tried to keep secret. This document showed the project as being fundamentally flawed.
The Water Futures project was never a solution – where was the RO waste stream going to go. Where was Thorley going to hide it? Acland Coal didn’t want it. Without their involvement, the project’s cost doubled. How high would rates be then?
You will be surprised at how quickly other water source options are now adopted for Toowoomba.
The only thing fundamentally flawed is ignoring a good source of water. Does it matter where it goes, even if it did double the price to move it to a location other than Acland Coal? how much money can you put on water? Sooner or later money has to be spent. In 18 months when the town has no whatever, what is going to happen?
“How high would rates be then?” – sooner of later the line has to be drawn, and if that involves paying more for water, then thats what its going to have to be. Do you expect the price of water, for the household, to be decreasing in price in the midst of the worst drought on record? Come on, common sense here. No matter what happens, all of us are going to have to pay extra for water because of a lack of forward planning by the State Government.
How about we weigh this up on a scale of common sense. “…where was the RO waste stream going to go. Where was Thorley going to hide it?” On one hand we have (a)Toowoomba, a beatifual city with no water, parched and dying because of a kiddy “yuck factor” campaign (I never mentioned a scare campaign, just a lack of common sense one) against recycled water, or (B) Toowoomba, a beatiful town with a good source of water, marred only by ONE place where waste has to go in order to maintain ourwater. A little sacrifice. Seeing as I personally need water to live a healthy life, Ill choose option (B). Again, its a small sacrifice.
So just think about it, in the end, we are going to have to pay more money for water in the future no matter what happens. And until a cheaper solution comes to hand, “No” voters should grow up and take a perfectly (although maybe expensive) good source of water. It might seem expensive now, but when if you had no water, you would pay any amount for it.
“You will be surprised at how quickly other water source options are now adopted for Toowoomba.” If you could kindly point these out, I would be glad to read them. I found it a bit odd that you didnt include them in the first place. Maybe those other water source options aren’t coming along so quickly then?
At the end of the 1st par, around here “In 18 months when the town has no whatever, what is going to happen?” I meant to say “no WATER whatsoever”.
Missed the point.
Thorley always said Water Futures was the cheapest. Acland Coal’s refusal to take the RO waste stream meant that the project cost would at least double. So it would no longer be the cheapest option. Therefore her argument was flawed.
Read the NO case – the other options (less costly than Water Futures) are right there.
It does leave one question – why wouldn’t Thorley allow the Water Futures costings to be independently assessed – not the other options – Water Futures itself. Beattie’s report just assumed they were correct and added 10%. Why so nervous of an independent assessment?