Raise the dam wall

I WAS very disappointed to see that Townsville Enterprise’s recent “Unlock the North” campaign did not seek to raise the wall of the Burdekin Falls Dam by the full 14.6m the dam is designed for.

Instead, Townsville Enterprises’ glossy “Unlock the North” brochure only mentions raising the dam wall by a measly 2m.

Raising the Burdekin Falls Dam wall by the full 14.6m is the biggest no-brainer infrastructure project available Australia right now.

Raising the wall by that height will increase the dam’s capacity by 6840 gigalitres.

It seems that Townsville Enterprise does not appreciate what that means.

An additional 6840 gigalitres will make the Burdekin Falls Dam bigger than the entire 16 dams of the Snowy Mountains Scheme put together or nearly four times bigger than the entire Melbourne in water supply. Put another way, the enlarged dam will be 870 times bigger than the Big Rocks Weir that Townsville Enterprise devoted a full page to in its glossy brochure. Townsville Enterprise claims the Big Rocks Weir will generate $35 million a year in agricultural revenue.

If so, extending the Burdekin Falls Dam by 14.6m will generate an additional $30 billion in revenue, which equates to a staggering 10 per cent increase in state GDP. And this extraordinary return is available from a mere extension of an existing dam where the access roads are already in place and the catchment area already owned by the State Government.

The cost of the full wall extension is the cheapest possible dam project in Australia in terms of dollars per litre.

As if that wasn’t enough, raising the dam wall by 14.6m will provide freshwater to

Townsville with zero pumping costs. This means water costs for our entire city can be reduced and Townsville will never have to endure water restrictions again.

I hope Townsville Enterprise and our local MPS do more thorough research on this project, which stands to transform Townsville and North Queensland forever if it is done properly.

DAVID FORBES,

Townsville.