Water is a precious resource. It sustains life and is vital for our environment and for food production.
Water is used in so many different ways at home, including drinking, bathing, washing clothes, flushing toilets, watering gardens and filling swimming pools. For Council, providing safe, reliable, efficient water and wastewater services to local residents and businesses is one of our core responsibilities.
Currently, water is purified at four treatment plants and wastewater is treated at eight treatment plants on the Fraser Coast.
Over the next 20 to 30 years, the population of the Fraser Coast is expected to increase significantly, which will impact on how water is provided and how it is used.
Council has a range of strategies underway or in development as part of an overarching Water Resilience Framework.
The framework spans from dams to reuse with the aim of securing our water future on the Fraser Coast.
It’s all about ensuring we have a sustainable, affordable and reliable water future for our community and our environment.
The Fraser Coast region sources its drinking water from the two Burrum Weirs and Lenthalls Dam on the Burrum River, and Teddington Weir on Tinana Creek.
Our water supplies rely on rainfall with dams monitored daily by Council’s Wide Bay Water and managed carefully to ensure there is enough water during periods of prolonged dry weather.
To ensure the balance between having water available at all times and the cost to provide water to the community, water restrictions are a widely used method of managing the available water.
Based on current climate and population forecasts, the most recent strategies have identified that our current dams and weirs will provide safe water supply yields for Hervey Bay until at least 2046 and Maryborough until at least 2066.
The Water Supply Security Strategy project will reassess the options available for future water supplies, and when they are required.
Council will also seek to understand the value the community places on increased water security by determining the community’s expectations on the frequency and duration of water restrictions while also considering the potential pricing impacts.
More details on this project and how the community can get involved will be released soon.
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