West Coast Aboriginal community left with no water

The drought is affecting farmers around the state – and it has also left an Aboriginal community on the Far West Coast with no water.

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A small Aboriginal community on the Far West Coast says the drought has dried up their main water supply and left them with water costs they cannot afford.

Scotdesco Community chief executive Robert Larking said the community was now “completely dry”.

“We are now in a desperate situation, there is no main potable water source here for the community, we have to buy clean drinking water and yet government has still not stepped up to help by providing subsidised water rates,” Mr Larking said.

The community, which has a population of 50, is paying $1400 for a tanker of water, more than four times that of its closest neighbouring town, the farming community of Penong, which pays $300 a load through a subsidy scheme.

Water for Scotdesco is captured through rainwater tanks at individual houses, as well as a large, purpose-built catchment, which is then stored in a plastic bladder, which has a capacity of 1.5 million litres. But it is now dry.

The water catchment at Scotdesco on the Far West Coast, which has run dry.

Mr Larking said the community had grave fears for summer.

“Sometimes it can get up to 50 degrees out here,” he said.

“We usually get 300 millimetres of annual rainfall each year – this year it’s been only 55mm.”

This followed two previous dry years.

The community had to cart in two loads of water in March and April this year, when the issue was flagged with the State Government.

The community had a desalination plant about eight years ago but it was decommissioned because of running costs, maintenance and issues with continual breakdowns.

Mr Larking said this could be a viable long-term option, if there was a cost-effective mechanism to run the plant, such as solar power.

But in the short-term, he said they desperately needed cheaper, subsidised water.

“There are currently two bores available to the Scotdesco community, but this water is only suitable for livestock,” he said.

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“Desalination, using modern cost-effective technology including solar, could be a long term viable option for the Scotdesco Community, but in the short term, subsidised water rates are really what is needed here.”

He said a lack of potable water at Scotdesco would force families to move away from the area to larger communities, such as Ceduna.

The State Government said it was aware of the issues and was working closely with the community.​