SWEET WATER

As a kid growing up near Sarina, our drinking water came from an old, galvanised iron tank with rust holes plugged with chewing gum.

We thought this was great as we weren’t usually allowed gum. When its perforations gave a colander a run for its money, and no amount of Juicyfruit could stem the flow, we replaced it with a concrete permacrete tank. The joy of the ever-cool water straight from the tap!

When attending school at St Anne’s, we experienced town water for the first time. It was atrocious. A glass of water, sometimes cloudy, if left to sit would result in nearly a centimetre of sediment in the bottom. There was an old tank in a sad state of repairs and drinking from it was forbidden but we would risk the wrath of the Sisters for a drink – mosquito wrigglers and all.

I have drunk from water holes while mustering where swiping away the scum from the top of the water was necessary to get to something that was even suggestive of being liquid. Western bores were so bad that you had to hold your nose to drink!

It is with great pride that I welcome the opening of the Koumala water treatment plant. While Mackay water often wins awards, both Calen and Koumala are at the other end of the scale. Calen has a treatment plant, while until now Koumala did not.

There is a long story to how it came to being, with more than a few fights along the way.

To some who said they did not see the plant as important, I pointed out that their children attended the school as anecdotally, I had heard stories of kids becoming dehydrated after they ran out of water brought from home rather than drinking from the town supply.

While the water may not be as perfect as some would desire, it is a tremendous improvement as the graph shows. Unfortunately, there is only so far you can go until you risk salinity.

Anyway kids, I just hope that after running around at lunch, you can have a drink straight from the tap.

Sometimes the simple things are the sweetest.

Cr Martin Bella

Mackay Regional Council

‍