Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement of $20 million to “kickstart” the Southern Downs region’s plans for long-term water security is very welcome here at POW!  Given Council has spent millions of ratepayer dollars on obtaining at least four reports on urban water supply options over the last 20 years, you would have hoped we would be further along with planning for long-term water security than being right at the start.  However the kick is welcome (and we could certainly think of places to direct it).

More than $8 million of the announced drought resilience package will be put towards detailed design and surveying for the proposed Warwick-Toowoomba pipeline.  The aim is to drought-proof Warwick, which would then enable the State Government to “look at other options moving forward” for towns such as Stanthorpe, according to Minister for Regional Development and Water Glenn Butcher.

Those with long memories might recall that in April 2010 the expert analysis commissioned (and paid for) by SDRC recommended that a pipeline from Connolly Dam represented the best option for long-term urban water security for Stanthorpe in terms of all criteria investigated.  With a Toowoomba-Warwick pipeline this would probably further strengthen the case for the Connolly Dam pipeline.  Council ignored this recommendation in 2010 and instead immediately commissioned Unidel to research the Emu Swamp Dam project.

If Council had acted on that recommendation at the time, the Connolly Dam pipeline could have been in place before the last drought, would have prevented water carting, and would have cost (even on current estimates) about a quarter of the cost of Emu Swamp Dam.  You could say hindsight is a wonderful thing, or you could actually think how easy it could have been just to listen to the experts you had paid with ratepayers money.