Wivenhoe Dam’s water won’t be cheap

Updated: 23:55, Friday November 18, 2011

There will be no discount for households that use water released from Wivenhoe Dam in South-East Queensland.

The dam will be drawn down from 80 to 75 per cent capacity to help prevent flooding, with the first release scheduled for Friday.

An estimated 57,000 megalitres is to be released at a rate of about 120 cubic metres per second, and normal water restrictions have been suspended for 10 days.

But Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser said providing water for free was not an option.

That would require every water metre on every home to be read and then re-read when the 10-day period ended, and that simply wasn’t practical for councils, Mr Fraser said.

It cost money to treat and distribute water and it was appropriate that current pricing arrangements applied, he said.

Water levels in the dam are being lowered as a precaution after the Bureau of Meteorology pointed to wetter conditions in coming months.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes