‘Where would you build a dam?’ Minister demands answers

The Opposition’s calls for a new dam to be built in southeast Queensland has raised the ire of the Water Minister, who’s demanding to know where.

Water Minister Glenn Butcher. Picture: Liam Kidston

Water Minister Glenn Butcher has demanded the LNP reveal where they would build new dams in South East Queensland amid an escalating battle over water security as dam levels slowly fall.

The Palaszczuk government is under fire over delays to its plan for water security in southeast Queensland, where the population is expected to grow by 2.2m over two decades.

The water grid remains 70 per cent full, but exploding residential and industrial growth has prompted attacks on the government from the LNP, which declared “they actually need to build a dam”.

Mr Butcher, however, said there was little detail from the Opposition about where a dam should be built.

“They talk about dams but have not said where they would like one built or how a dam would best support water security for the southeast given the impacts of climate change,” he said.

“The LNP have no plan for water security.”

Mr Butcher said climate resilient assets such as the Gold Coast Desalination Plant and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme were critical drought response measures and would prevent the region from running out of water.

“The people of southeast Queensland are very responsible water users, using only 169L per day on average at the moment, which is significantly less than other parts of Queensland,” he said.

An updated Seqwater 30-year Water Security Program is tipped to go to Cabinet this month, which will set out future infrastructure requirements.

Opposition water spokeswoman Deb Frecklington said the party would release its plan for water security before the next election, but did not say whether a new dam would be included.

“At the next election Queenslanders will have a clear choice, a united LNP team with a water tight plan for water security or a chaotic Labor rabble who after a decade in office have failed to release a water plan,” she said.

“When the state is faced with water restrictions again, responsibility will fall directly at the feet of this Labor Government consumed by its own chaos and crisis.”

Renowned Queensland water engineer Max Winders backed Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s call for another water source, but said constructing a new dam would take significant time.

“(Mr Schrinner’s) request is quite valid and a further review of the construction of a dual purpose, flood mitigation/water supply dam on the Brisbane River, upstream of Linville, should be undertaken as a matter of urgency,” he said.

“It would take at least two years to get the dam designed, and then who knows how many further years to get it built.

“And in the meantime we’re coming into an El Nino which doesn’t last one year – it could be for five years, which would put us back into the situation we were in 2009.”