Toowoomba reaches level five water restrictions ...

From ABC News (annotated)

Toowoomba reaches level five water restrictions

The World Today

25 September 2006

Reporter: David Curnow

ELEANOR HALL: Just weeks after rejecting recycled water in a referendum, the residents of the drought-stricken city of Toowoomba in south-east Queensland now face some of the toughest water restrictions in the country.Along with Goulburn in New South Wales, Toowoomba is to become one of the only areas in Australia on level five restrictions, which allow no outside tap water use.

But those who led the campaign against accepting treated effluent still insist the city made the right choice, as David Curnow reports.

DAVID CURNOW: Toowoomba's dams are about to drop below 20 per cent capacity. So from tomorrow, water restrictions move to their toughest official level. No one can use town water outside. One of the few exceptions, cleaning a car windscreen, but only if it's dangerous not to.That means no hoses for any reason, no washing your car or house and no cleaning your pavers, most definitely no watering gardens with town water. For a city that's famous for its annual Carnival of Flowers, that's a tough ask, but nursery operator Lorraine Schiller says gardeners are up to the challenge.

LORRAINE SCHILLER: We've been on the level four for over 12 months, and people have realised that they don't need to water their garden as often as what they did before. And it showed with the carnival this year, with some of the plants have never looked so good and flowered so well.

DAVID CURNOW: Toowoomba's Deputy Mayor, Councillor Joe Ramia, is also in charge of water decisions in the city.

JOE RAMIA: There's no prize or there's no award for being on level five. These are tough times and, you know, if we don't get any rain in the next six months or so, they're going to get even tougher.

[Joe, you could always consider the Norwin irrigator proposal - there's $22 million in this year's Council budget which could now be allocated towards this.]

DAVID CURNOW: What is tougher than level five?

JOE RAMIA: Well, the council has spoken very briefly on what happens if we don't receive any rain or water in our dams and, you know, the dams keep dropping, which they are, and we get down to most probably, say, 15 per cent. Whether there comes in another level or, you know, maybe level six, what they may be at this stage is anyone's guess. You know, people have spoken about putting a stop to development, people have spoken about many things, but until we have the debate, you know, you can't pre-empt any decision at this stage. But, you know, at the end of the day, if we don't have water, something has to change out there to conserve what water we have left for drinking and living purposes.

DAVID CURNOW: The local State MP, Kerry Shine, supported the yes vote in the July referendum on recycled water. He lost that campaign, but after retaining his seat in this month's Queensland election, he's been rewarded with the Natural Resources and Water Portfolio, and with no significant rain, his own city now faces running out of water in 2008.

KERRY SHINE: So it's not as if we're going to run out of water tomorrow, but there will, you are quite right, be considerable restrictions. It's important, therefore, that the recommendations that we need to get are got together promptly, and that the Government makes the decision with council as to which way to go in terms of coming up with the necessary solutions.

DAVID CURNOW: Even if Toowoomba had voted to accept recycled water, it wouldn't have been available for some years. And one of the leading no campaigners, Rosemary Morley, says the new restrictions don't prove the city made a mistake in rejecting the alternative water source.

ROSEMARY MORLEY: What people should understand is that it was going to happen whether they voted yes or no, simply because the council has sat on its hands and hasn't worked on the infrastructure to bring other water to the people.

DAVID CURNOW: But Joe Ramia says some Toowoomba residents are changing their minds about recycled water.

JOE RAMIA: I've spoken to some people who, you know, who were very strong no case supporters said hey, maybe this has been the wrong way I voted or, you know, maybe I should've got more information and did the right thing because, at the end of the day, it's about a community having water, and at this stage we don't have a real lot of it.

[But Joe, your Water Futures project would not have provided recycled sewage water until 2011-2012]

ELEANOR HALL: That's Toowoomba resident Joe Ramia ending that report from David Curnow.

See - ABC News - Level 5 restrictions.


Perhaps Deputy Mayor Ramia could provide some evidence that NO voters are suddenly changing their minds in favour of Mayor Thorley's failed recycled sewage experiment ...