WATER USAGE

I REFER to the story (TC, 22/02) under the headline “Record temps spur huge water usage” and in particular the list appended to the story giving average per person water usage during January.

Reading from the top (heaviest users) the list reports … Glenvale 430 litres per person per day; Vale View 344; Millmerran 334; Pittsworth 332; Cambooya 321; Southbrook 274; Highfields 239; Hampton 238; Kingsthorpe 221; Blue Mountain Heights 202; Goombungee 196; Oakey 187; Toowoomba City 183; Crows Nest 162; Yarraman 161; Gowrie Junction 130; Haden 115; Meringandan West 99.

Now regular readers are probably scratching their heads thinking they missed it. Well, they shouldn’t worry. Everything quoted above was from The Chronicle on February 22, 2017.

As I write this – exactly one year later to the day – we read another story (p.4) under the headline “Top water wasters shamed in council” in which it is reported that in January 2018 the top water users were Millmerran at 636 litres per person per day; Pittsworth/Brookstead 496; Cecil Plains 494; Vale View 399; and Toowoomba’s urban areas (does this equate to city only?) 216.

All this gives rise to two questions: 1: Why can we not have the monthly per capita consumption reported on council website for each community? That way we could all know what is happening. And…

2: What has the operations managers been doing for the past 12 months? They certainly haven’t been actively monitoring demand. Or is it simply a case of more demand equals more revenue?

As the French would say … “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”. TONY LAKE, Meringandan West