SEQ - furore over water tanks ...

Brisbane City Council drops rebates for tanks unless they are plumbed into homes.

Qld Labor government arm, QWC, refuses to comment on whether tanks are a waste of time.

See - Courier Mail - are water tanks a waste of cash?

Why the QWC is sitting on the fence:

- Outside residential water use accounts for around 30% of household use (in the absence of water restrictions).

- Using tanks for outdoor use only can reduce demand on city water supplies by around 30%.

- A 30% reduction in demand = 30% reduction in water sales and profitability.

- Such a reduction in demand makes the SEQ water companies less attractive for privatisation.

It's the same old story.

Councils forced ratepayers to get rid of their water tanks so they had to purchase their water, underscoring vastly profitable water sales.

As the Beattie government does its sums on privatising SEQ water, it knows that the water companies will be much more attractive to buyers if they can minimise tank use and maximise the sale of water.

It's the same as Indonesia in the mid-1990s when the French companies bribed their way in. Residents were no longer permitted to rely on bore water and were forced to buy water from the French.

Flash forward to say 2010 and it's the same likely scenario for SEQ - residents forced to buy water from Veolia as part of Beattie's SEQ water privatisation.

A little known fact - France does not permit foreign ownership of water supplies - they regard local ownership as being in the national interest. The French 'Big Water' companies have used their stranglehold on local water supplies to launch a takeover of water supplies around the world ...