By Diet Simon
By 2017 households in southeast Queensland will have to pay four times as much for water as they are paying now. From the 1st of July the Queensland government will be managing and supplying water.
This results from the state government’s seizing bulk water infrastructure such as dams and treatment facilities from local governments.
Many councils are angry that they have lost control of and were not paid the full value of these facilities.
The Sunshine Coast Regional Council, which runs the fourth-largest municipal area in Australia, is one of them.
Its mayor, Bob Abbott, calls the water seizure one of the most draconian bits of legislation imposed by the Anna Bligh Labor government.
But the Council seems resigned to the price quadrupling fate, although a successfully tested local alternative, large-scale rain harvesting from roofs and re-use of treated water, is readily available.
My co-presenter, Rob Rodriquez, and I have covered a running stoush in Council over why the technology is not being taken up in two programmes on Noosa Community Radio.
We invite you to listen to them.
- http://www.noosacommunityradio.org/water-price-to-quadruple-councillors-...
- http://www.noosacommunityradio.org/fatal-delay-or-due-diligence-on-new-w...