Water petition launched as fed up and frustrated residents demand action, transparency from Douglas Shire Council

WATER SAGA

Michael Warren

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Douglas Shire Council has come under fire for their lack of maintenance towards its aging water infrastructure system. Picture: Newsport

Fed up and frustrated Douglas Shire residents have taken matters into their own hands after the creation of a passionate petition that demands the immediate addressing of the ongoing local water debacle.

The third world situation has seen water completely turned off or restricted the past 24-72 hours following continual issues with Douglas Shire water supply including broken pipes, a drop in water reservoir levels and turbidity issues.

That’s left tourists unable to have showers at some local resorts, households having to access bottled water at local distribution points and disruptions to cafes and restaurants that require water access to run businesses.

As of this morning there's still no change to the current water situation in the Douglas Shire.

With the current issue showing no signs of abating a number of residents through the title of ‘we demand immediate restoration of essential water supply in Douglas Shire’ created a petition on Change.org.

Created by Wonga Beach resident Jayne Miller, the petition started:

Since the beginning of 2024, Douglas Shire has experienced multiple pipe breaks (with more unidentified) and multiple closures of treatment plants due to turbidity. All of this is being blamed on heavy rain in 2024.  

Our water system must be able to deal with monsoonal conditions and the fact that our water system is not coping with heavy rain, with pipes breaking and treatment plants unable to cope with the turbidity, is deeply concerning.

Ms Miller said the petition has several key requests to DSC. They include:

Turn on unpotable water with clear safety instructions for its use;

This will ensure there is water for residents of and visitors to the Douglas Shire. It will also enable those appointed to fixing the multiple water supply issues time to plan, review, identify and upgrade, rather than continuously react to each emergency.

Seek urgent assistance from the Queensland State Government 

For whatever is required to fix the multiple problems with our water system – whether it be expertise and or funding for an upgrade, or part thereof.

Improve communication with residents and visitors to the region 

If you are about to switch off residents’ water, please ensure you provide them with advance notification via SMS.  

If you have any other information to impart (such as please conserve water, or your water supply will be switched off) please again provide notification via SMS.

As of just moments ago the petition had 142 signatures. You can access the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/we-demand-immediate-restoration-of-essential-water-supply-in-douglas-shire?source_location=search

Separately there is growing speculation that a peaceful public march might be held in the coming days with locals walking collectively to the DSC offices to demand action regarding better local water accessibility.

Meantime, the opening Douglas Shire Council meeting of the year started with a collective thanks and acknowledgement to everyone behind the ongoing recovery mission of the Douglas Shire in the wake of Jasper and the Mossman flood event.

DSC Mayor Michael Kerr through a notice of motion then moved to engage CEO Rachel Brophy to attain immediate State Government assistance to assist, fix the current Douglas Shire water issues. The Motion was carried.

All Councillors spoke to the motion with Cr Zammataro suggesting the motion "sounds very political", while Deputy Mayor Lisa Scomazzon said she wanted answers about when local water would be turned back on, why the local water system keeps having issues and what's being done to rectify the issue.

Cr Kerr said the local water issues are being caused by recent slides in mud which have gone into the water.

Cr Peter McKeown questioned information being disseminated from Council about the water crisis, saying it's critical to issue information to the public in "simple English" so the average local resident could get a quick understanding about what specifically is currrently wrong with their local water system.

CEO Rachel Brophy said ongoing turbidity levels, which in simple terms means dirt or soot in local water is currently high making it unsafe to drink. She also acknowledged that an aging water infrastructure system is another key reason for the ongoing water issues around the Shire.

Ms Brophy said the focus now is to find a proper fix to local water issues, then build back better, in the long term.

 


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