19 February 2020
Today at the General Meeting, Southern Downs Regional Council voted to ease water restrictions and move from emergency level to critical level of 100L per person per day, effective immediately.
In making its decision, Council urged residents to remain vigilant with water usage, citing that one rain event did not break the drought.
Southern Downs Mayor Tracy Dobie said that while the rain offered a reprieve for the community with private dams and water tanks filled to overflowing, more water was still needed in the urban dams.
“It is a wonderful sight to see green grass and water in our private dams and tanks again, and this certainly offers some hope to our residents and farmers,” said Mayor Dobie.
“While our urban dams did receive some inflow from the recent rain and this has allowed Council to relax water restrictions in the interim, much more water is needed and all residents have a responsibility to continue conserve and use water wisely.”
Water will continue to be trucked from Warwick to Stanthorpe until Storm King Dam has six month’s supply.
Leslie Dam is currently at 18.23 per cent capacity, Storm King Dam is at 17.5 per cent and Connolly Dam is 75.1 per cent full.
Councillor for Health, Cultural Diversity and Learning Neil Meiklejohn added: “We need to consider water usage while we are still carting to Stanthorpe and how this will affect the amount of water that we are carting. We’re still in a sensitive state with only three months of water in Storm King Dam. I’m equally aware that people are looking for respite from restrictions.”
Council again thanked the State Government for its funding and support for the emergency water infrastructure and carting that ensured residents on the reticulated network would continue to have water flowing from their taps.