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Maleny Water supply in jeopardy |
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Written by Les Fawkes
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Thursday, 10 December 2009 |
Despite
Maleny’s water supply being in peril as the Obi Creek stops running at
the Maleny Weir from where the town water supply is drawn Maleny
residents are using more than 225 litres per person per day.
The slowdown of water entering Obi Creek above the weir has been caused by a very dry spring. November brought less that 40mm of rain in the weir catchment.
General water restrictions came into play on December 1st 2009. The Sunshine Coast Regional Council is considering even tougher restrictions if water use does not drop as there is less than 8 weeks of water left in the Maleny town water weir. It is hoped that residents will drop water usage to less than 200 litres per person per day.
About 60,000 litres of water are being trucked to Maleny each week to help eke out the amount of water available in the hope that summer storms will soon bring further falls in the Obi Creek catchment about the Maleny weir.
The future security of Maleny’s water supply will be ensured after the construction of a 9km water pipeline from the Landers Shute Water treatment plant to Maleny. This treatment plant processes water from the Baroon Pocket Dam.
The water filling station at the Maleny Show grounds has been closed for some time and rural residents who need to top up their water supply should obtain it from water filling stations at Landsborough or Beerwah.
In another side to the shortage of water in Maleny the swimming community were hit hard when on the night of Friday 4th December some person broke into the Maleny Centenary Pool and emptied it of water.
Anyone with any information about the persons responsible for emptying the pool should contact Maleny police.
Because of the shortage of water in Maleny weir it was not possible to refill it from the town supply. Water had to be trucked in Rod Wild Wild Water supplies. Should the pool have been left empty for any extended period of time there was the possibility of damage being caused to the structure.
Information about how to reduce your water use can be found on the web site http://waterforever.com.au
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 29 December 2009 )
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Range News 2005 - ON 
