Lets Talk Water…

Let’s talk water. In particular urban and irrigation water.

Urban Water. One of the most vitally important jobs we have as your council is the supply of safe potable water to our towns. We take that responsibility extremely seriously and take any issues when things go wrong, very seriously.

Last week Eidsvold had water pressure losses and many in town had complete water loss. From the time I was alerted to the issue to the time of repair was approximately four hours but many have said the problem existed much longer than this. Of course technology now gives us all a sense of comfort in its monitoring abilities, however I just wanted to use this column to say that we also rely on our community to let us know when things aren’t right.

Some of the feedback I received was that people didn’t know how to contact council after hours in these situations. So just to clarify –we have a 24 hour service so our community has access to speak to someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This was a decision of council in 2015 as it was a cost saving measure from paying people ‘on call’ for the entire weekend/public holidays – sometimes without any issue.

What happens is this: You call councils ‘normal’ number 1300 696 272. This then provides a message saying that the office is closed, if it’s an emergency to call 000 and if the matter is urgent to hold the line. This call is then answered by staff who have been upskilled on our region (however, I do note that they don’t know everything a local would), they also have a complete list of contacts for those on call and also contacts for the CEO and Mayor if necessary. Please don’t ever feel alone! We are operational 24 hours a day and in the matter of water – if you don’t have it – we need to know!

Thanks to those people who alerted us to the situation.

Irrigation Water. As many irrigators would know QCA has been tasked with making recommendations on irrigation prices for the period 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2024. It is vital for our region that you make your submissions to this process. I checked on Monday and the draft schedule for the regional workshops was confirmed on 29th Jan. Unfortunately by the time you read this the Boyne/Tarong and Barker/Barambah workshop has already taken place in Murgon on 5th however the Upper Burnett, Three Moon and Callide takes place on 12th Feb in Monto Hall at 9-11am.

I also checked on the submissions and so far there are 27 with only one from our region (Three Moon Irrigators).  Council and WBBROC will be making a submission but we encourage as many of you as possible to be a part of this review. If anyone can’t make the workshop and would like to talk about their submission or would like to be included as part of ours, please contact me. Submissions close 22nd February.