WATER USE ON AGENDA
Call for collaboration on sustainable use of region’s water
A STRATEGIC view is needed to guide the sustainable use of water and competing infrastructure projects now lining up for development, a Townsville Enterprise webinar has been told. The peak development authority convened the webinar, entitled North Queensland’s Water and Agricultural Opportunities, seeking comment from the major players behind the projects. Projects include the Urannah dam, an expanded Burdekin Falls Dam and Hells Gates dam.
A STRATEGIC view is needed to guide the sustainable use of water and the infrastructure projects which are now lining up for development, a Townsville Enterprise webinar has been told.
At stake is the huge Burdekin Basin water catchment and multiple, competing water and energy projects adjacent to the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef.
These projects include the proposed $2.9b Urannah dam, an expanded Burdekin Falls Dam and the proposed $5b Hells Gates dam, all of which have feasibility studies or business cases under way.
The peak development authority convened the webinar, entitled North Queensland’s Water and Agricultural Opportunities, drawing on the expertise of the major players.
But the webinar was told one of the key stakeholders, the state’s water corporation, Sunwater, which owns the Burdekin dam, was not in a position to take up the opportunity to present.
The CEO of federal agency North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority, Richard Mcloughlin, said strategic thinking, on a basin scale, was needed.
“In my mind, a really intelligent conversation, yet to be had, would be to say, how would you utilise the current Burdekin and Hells Gates development to maximise the utility of the sustainable water that could be set aside for irrigation, after taking into account environmental flows and whatever else was needed for cities and towns and the like,” Mr Mcloughlin said.
The project manager of business case studies into the Hells Gates dam and associated Big Rocks Weir, John Bearne, said all of the proposed projects were great stand-alone schemes but needed to be considered as a whole under the Burdekin Basin water plan.
“If you look at all three, you put some serious stresses on the availability of water, taking into account the other demands of water, which would be the current irrigators, the environment and the Great Barrier Reef,” Mr Bearne said.
He said the sharing of information among the three players would be of immense value.
Webinar moderator and Townsville Enterprise investment director Wayde Chiesa asked if the thinking should be not only about where the water storages should be but how the best use of available agricultural land could be made.
Mr Mcloughlin said some land in the Burdekin delta, potentially, was “going saline” and that there could be opportunities for existing irrigators to move further up the catchment where they could have options to grow other higher value crops.
Townsville Enterprise CEO Patricia O’callaghan said the next 12 months to two years would be critical for determining which projects proceeded.