Cairns Regional Council’s water restriction message not hitting home
Cairns Regional Council has explained the midday use of sprinklers to water its gardens while enforcing strict rules on residents amid fears of supply constraints.
Cairns Regional Council has explained the midday use of sprinklers to water its gardens while enforcing strict rules on residents amid fears of supply constraints.
As the local government ramped up its public appeal calling on households to reduce water consumption following reservoir failures, publicly-owned gardens at Shields St in the CBD were under sprinkler irrigation about 12pm Thursday.
Households across the Cairns LGA are allowed to use sprinklers between 5am-9am and 5pm-9pm on specified days, but the council’s chief executive Ken Gouldthorp urged residents to be mindful of the weather.
“Look at the weather, don’t water your lawn if it’s raining, watch how you’ve got automatic sprinkler systems,” he said.
However, a CRC spokeswoman said the sprinklers at Shields St were switched on for a test on Thursday, while stating the organisation’s irrigation program aligned with current restrictions.
“When our horticulture team spots plants or a garden bed in distress, a brief sprinkler test is conducted to ensure there are no issues with the irrigation system such as damage to piping, vandalism or stolen parts,” she said.
It comes as the CEO on Thursday doubled down on recent calls urging residents to adhere to water restrictions, declaring earlier messaging wasn’t hitting home.
Issues with three reservoirs which were putting pressure on the remaining system including treatment plants were brought to light mid-September where the council first began its public appeal to reduce use.
But in an update just this week, Mr Gouldthorp said usage was trending away from the target of 70ML per day across the council’s system.
“The awareness of those water restrictions has dropped off and we need people to know about it and adhere to them.
“But more so than ever, we have a higher level of risk because of the status of those three reservoirs that are offline.”
The three included Bayview, Brinsmead and University reservoirs, with the latter being the largest in CRC’s system.
Mr Gouldthorp said the University reservoir suffered a leak due to movement over its rubber gasket, forcing the council to reduce water pressure to 60 per cent and limiting its capacity from 20ML down to 12ML.
It means with Bayview (8.5ML) and Brinsmead (5ML) offline, the Cairns water system was currently operating on at least 21ML less than the city’s capacity.
Mr Gouldthorp said while the city’s cross-pipe system allowed suburbs to support each other, the concern would be on stored potable water “if and when” treatment plants had to be shut down post heavy rainfall during the wet season.
The chief executive defended criticism of the council’s historical investment into maintenance, but said more effort was being made to reduce risks to the remaining 69 reservoirs.
“I think it’s harsh,” he said of the criticism.
“However, let’s be realistic, putting money in the ground, putting money into hard infrastructure is always a difficult challenge. You’re trying to balance up that investment.”
Mr Gouldthorp said the council was aiming to avoid a scenario where water had to be completely shut off from suburbs.
“Obviously, we can increase the level of restrictions that we that we have. We don’t want to go there - our preference is to gain co-operation from the community.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Cairns Regional Council’s water restriction message not hitting home
Cairns nurse loses appeal over ‘pain compliance’ move
