CURE FOR WATER SICKNESS 2018 start due on treatment facility
CONSTRUCTION on a water treatment plant at Paluma is scheduled to start early next year after the contract to design and build the infrastructure was awarded to a Sydney- based company.
CRS Water will undertake the $ 550,000 project to provide quality drinking water to the 75 homes. It follows heated discussions between Townsville City Council and the Paluma community, with some residents claiming the water had been making them sick.
An initial design of the treatment plant was estimated to cost about $ 1.3 million. However, the council was able to reduce that by about $ 750,000, it was revealed at yesterday’s full council meeting.
Paluma Inn owner Jenny Robinson, who has lived in the community for about five years, said she had hoped the water problem would have been fixed by Christmas.
“Water has always been an issue,” she said. “The taste, the colour and the thickness, and the tummy upsets from it.”
Ms Robinson said she did not know how many times the water had made her sick.
“We’ve just tried to avoid it; we’ve been buying bottled water,” she said. “I attended the two main meetings when the mayor was here.
“It’s been a long, hard struggle. People don’t know the work behind getting it this far.” When asked whether she was pleased that less of a burden had been placed on ratepayers, Ms Robinson said she hoped the lower- cost plant would do the same job. “They told us at the meeting that it won’t have all the bells and whistles,” she said. “It will save us some money; we want to see how it goes. “They don’t realise the number of tourists who come up here every day. “It will be nice to turn the tap on and drink water.” Water and Waste Committee chairman Councillor Paul Jacob said the project had been a long time coming, having been initially broached about four years ago. He said one of the main advantages was that visitors – including schoolchildren who stay at camps at Paluma – would be able to access quality drinking water.