As the Australia drought intensifies and temperatures rise towards 50C, the Tamborine Mountain State School in Queensland has run out of water. Thats despite Water Miners still sending roughly 2.5m litres a week (130 m litres per year) down the mountain to large commercial bottling operations.
“Now the government is buying water back from Coca-Cola to bring here, which is where it came from in the first place.” one local lamented referring to the Education Departments undertaking to deliver water to the School.
The community wants the state’s natural resources minister, Anthony Lynham, to use emergency powers to prioritise local supply. Lynham said in a statement he understood the concerns of residents and the impact of the drought on their water supply.
“As I have previously said, groundwater is not regulated on Mount Tamborine and so my department does not have the power to limit take. I do have the power to limit take in a declared water shortage – but that is everyone’s take, including local farmers, households, and businesses.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... CRnOPtjdYA
SO thristy consumers of NSG, what do you think of this situation?
In my opinion its absolutely abominable that the Queensland Government does not intervene - declare an emergency water shortage and use it to reallocate water rights in the area to ensure that the aquifers remain refreshed and the local community is priorities over commercial takes. I'm not anti commercial bottling, but I am against profit driven exploitation of water. The Environment needs to be guaranteed at least 40% of the flow remains in the natural water system and the remainder allocated to ensure residential drinking water supplies are priorities.
Thats even more so in a country like Australia where droughts are common and with climate change appear to be getting progressively worse.
