Upon attending the Cunnamulla meeting of the Great Artesian Basin Draft Water Plan last week, I came away more distressed about the future of the GAB than ever. This meeting, as most other meetings that have been held regarding the Draft Water Plan, was very poorly attended, due to lack of effective advertisement. I don’t believe that two or so people attending many of the scheduled meetings, for a Draft Plan that is going to shape the future of the GAB, is nearly good enough. The hydrologists go to great length to explain the current and future of the GAB using figures that could only be described as rubbery. If pressed, even they must admit that much of what they are presenting as fact, is really conjecture and “educated guesses”.
I noted with a great deal of alarm that the CSG and mining industry have unlimited access to the water from the GAB and perform their own monitoring of water usage, reporting the results back to government. We were also informed that the CSG industries “treat” the waste water and then pump it back down into the aquafers. There is no long-term science to uncover the ramifications of such a treasonable act, but for the sake of expediency the Government has given the greenlight and turned a blind eye. We were also informed us that there is a 90,000ml wastage of water from the GAB from stock and domestic water usage and the Qld Government wants to further reduce this. I am concerned by any wastage of water, but it seems pitiful considering the CSG companies poisoning the water through their activities and being left to perform their own monitoring. According to the government hydrologists, current water being used for stock and domestic, is having nil effect on the GAB.
There seems to be a great anomaly occurring within the government. On one hand, there is open slather of water wastage and contamination for the CSG industry, yet further water restriction protocols being pushed upon agriculture for stock water.
When did water, the most precious commodity that sustains life, become so unimportant and is deemed by the resource industries as a “waste product”, be allowed to be treated with such contempt?
When will we wake up! Water is the substance of life, and what is happening to our GAB and associated aquifers through CSG mining is one of the greatest moral issues of our time.
Tricia Agar, Barbara Plains, Wyandra
