WATER TANKS: Will Douglas Shire ratepayers take water supply into their own hands?
FUTURE SUPPLY
Water being regularly shut off, virtual permanent restrictions and higher than normal water bills to Douglas Shire ratepayers who say they’re being charged when they’re not using the resource or not even at home – all of these recent issues have prompted serious thoughts about more use of water tanks.
Unlike drier areas to the south, water tanks for both homes and businesses to become more self-sufficient rather than rely on the town supply, have never really been promoted by councils or the state in the wet tropics – for perhaps understandable reasons.
But with water uncertainty, unreliability and doubts about ‘smart’ meters in Douglas seemingly the norm now and likely for some time to come, could water tanks be at least part of the solution in the near future, for use as a backup for bathroom & toilet, laundry and garden needs?
Douglas Shire Council doesn’t exactly have a specific policy about water tanks – only a rather generic statement that it “encourages any alternative supplies to conserve water”, and that, according to outgoing Mayor Michael Kerr, “residents and businesses would need to consider the cost for treatment, pumps and maintenance when making any investment but Council supports any efforts to harvest rainfall.”
Tanks should be among priorities: Wilkinson
One of three mayoral candidates in this weekend’s election, Stacy Wilkinson, told Newsport that water tanks definitely need to be among local government priorities going forward.
Mr Wilkinson said there have been times during the recent shut downs of Council water when a backup supply from tanks could have saved the day.
“I heard mums and dads were picking up their kids from the child care centre because they couldn’t use the toilet facilities,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“Well, why wasn’t there a tank deployed in that place? They could have dropped off bottles of water and mum and dad could have stayed at work. There are simple things like that, that we should be looking at.”
Water tank infrastructure, he said, is not expensive and with a rebate or similar incentive from the state government and-or Council, would be within just about every homeowner’s reach.
“I’ve put one in around my place, it’s a fair-sized unit, and I got change out of $1000, tank and pump, and while everyone was without water, I had visitors come in four times a day to use the tank to have a shower.”
Employment, economic opportunities
Part of the former recycling business owner’s local government election platform is to install water tanks in every newly built home in Douglas.
But he’d also like to see retrofitting of larger tanks, especially on Council-owned buildings and other local government facilities.
This he said, would be a new way to encourage more apprenticeships and employment.
“Whoever is appointed (to Council) should be exploring under this natural disaster scheme, some sort of tank subsidy, particularly if it’s been tied to being pressure-pumped to a house, because that gives a local electrician work, and demand for youth to get jobs out of that.”
The Mayor told Newsport while there are no current rebates or subsidies for water tank installation, “Council is investigating grant funding opportunities for the community,” Mr Kerr said.
New council should set examples
With further water supply problems expected to continue for possibly years to come, taking a lot of time and money – as the infrastructure has to be rebuilt, renewed and reconfigured after Cyclone Jasper – Mr Wilkinson said the new Council should immediately be more pro-active.
“Putting tanks in now mitigates dependence on our network,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“It gives us an increase in firefighting capability also.
“We’ve got all these sites, we’ve got to turn off the water – well, we’ve got depots and council buildings everywhere; why aren’t there already tanks there, and residents can access that 24-7.”
Learning from the Daintree
Also, he said Douglas Shire generally can learn a lot about tank water from residents across the Daintree River.
“They’ve relied on tank water for drinking for years; they were laughing at us when we were without water.
“I think we’ve got to learn from our people across the River in that, they’ve been so self-sufficient in what they do.
“We’re only 50 kilometres away. We should be doing the same.”
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