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We all know that water is one of the most precious resources on this planet, but did you know that approximately 65 per cent of the high-quality drinking water produced in the Douglas Shire ends up being used for irrigation, pool filling or other outdoor uses? This gives us a huge opportunity to reduce non-essential water usage if our water supply systems need a helping hand.

While water security improvements delivered by Council will much better prepare us for future events, we are still managing some of the longer-term changes in the raw water quality characteristics caused by TC Jasper.

Today’s Ordinary Council Meeting approved a plan to implement Emergency Water Restrictions if prolonged severe weather, or infrastructure failures, impact the region’s water supply this wet season.

The Emergency Water Restrictions include limiting non-essential water consumption such as outdoor watering and filling pools for a short period, to give critical water supply systems time to recover after a severe weather event.

The restrictions are a pro-active measure to help the community preserve water for the most important uses only (e.g. drinking, cooking, toilet flushing, showering, etc.), enhancing preparedness and supporting community resilience as the wet season approaches.

Douglas Shire Mayor Lisa Scomazzon said the Emergency Water Restrictions were part of Council’s preparedness for another extreme weather event.

“We are hopeful there will be few, if any, occasions when we will need to activate Emergency Water Restrictions this wet season, however if enacted, the plan is to relax restrictions when all reservoirs are back near maximum capacity,” Mayor Scomazzon said.

“This might be 12 hours if we have successfully repaired a major main break, or it could be 1-2 days if water production has stopped due to a prolonged wet weather event. The key to minimising the length of restrictions will be if we can truly band together as a community collectively shift the dial on water usage in our homes and businesses.

“While Council has made short-term improvements to water security, and is already working hard on the long-term plan, the reality is our water network will face some testing times if there are extreme periods of sustained rainfall during the coming wet season.

“Sediment levels in our once crystal-clear waterways are much higher than they were pre-Jasper and will rise even further if mud and debris, from existing landslip scars, clogs up our catchments again.

“We hope the emergency restrictions are not required but it is important the community is aware of some of the ongoing challenges our water network is facing and why everyone’s efforts in conserving water are so important.

“If everyone does their part to tackle our biggest water challenges together, we can keep our water flowing in even the most severe events,” Mayor Scomazzon added.

Tourism Port Douglas Daintree Executive Officer Emma Tunnock said she “welcomed the proactive measure”.

“On behalf of operators in the tourism industry, I express appreciation for the progress Douglas Shire Council has made in improving water security following TC Jasper and the December flooding,” Ms Tunnock said.

“The water outages we faced last year posed significant challenges, so we welcome proactive measures being implemented to ensure a reliable water supply should the water network come under duress.”

Click here to see what Emergency Water Restrictions will mean for you.


 

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