Water supply’s flow-on effect
WITH a Federal Election looming, our focus is sharpened to what is most important.
The security of supplies of water to underpin and guarantee the future prosperity of our region is the most pressing of all challenges confronting our region now and into the foreseeable future.
Water is, without question, central to our economy and to our future. Without water, we have nothing.
The opening of the Tinaroo Dam in 1959 was one of the most important events in the growth of the region. Without Tinaroo (and Copperlode Dam, constructed in 1976), we simply would not have been able to expand to what we are today.
The past 25 years have seen the welcome introduction of new crops such as sugar, citrus, table grapes and pawpaw which have broadened our economic base.
Water available from Tinaroo Dam is now fully allocated, leaving little or no room for the further expansion of agriculture, horticulture or our growing industrial base, and towns. Our future potential is now hindered.
Surely then, it is incumbent upon us all to seek to identify future sources of water, to construct dams to collect and secure that precious resource and to make it available to the community for the betterment of all. Nullinga Dam is our only available option.
It’s public knowledge that Cairns will have exhausted all available options for urban water supplies within 30 years.
Some things in life are blindingly obvious - the need for new water options being one. For government to fail to build a new dam indicates that their vision for the future for coming generations is completely lacking. Short-term denial and avoidance by all levels of government will eventually end in economic calamity.
Those people currently charged with making the decisions about our future will long since be gone when the reality of their failure to build for the future ultimately dawns on water deprived communities.
The highest priority should be water first, and the rest will follow. Bob Manning is the Cairns Regional Council Mayor. The Cairns Post will run opinion pieces from candidates and other commentators in the lead-up to the Federal Election.