Burst water pipe means residents forced to swelter through weekend without showers due to emergency water restrictions

A RUPTURED water pipe held the city to ransom at the weekend as residents sweltered in a stinky mess, unable to shower or wash clothes for two days.

• A supply pipe has burst at the Douglas Water Treatment Plant
• Strict water restrictions remain in place for Townsville, Magnetic Island

A RUPTURED water pipe held the city to ransom at the weekend as residents sweltered in a stinky mess, unable to shower or wash clothes for two days.

Townsville’s water crisis began unfolding on Friday afternoon when the council issued a “precautionary” statement to residents of Townsville and Magnetic Island to restrict “unnecessary” usage as workers tried to find and repair the cause of a leaking pipe which supplies the Douglas Water Treatment Plant — the city’s primary water treatment facility.

By Saturday morning the messaging had amped up to include businesses, notifying that only water use for drinking and flushing toilets was allowed.

A Townsville City Council spokesman told the Bulletin the cause of the rupture would be investigated.

“Council’s immediate priority since Friday afternoon has been repairing the pipe,” the spokesman said.

“The pipeline is about halfway through its anticipated usable asset life. It was last inspected in 2016.”

With water supplies at a “critical level” by Saturday, council enacted section 43 of the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability Act) 2008 to formally restrict the use of water across the city and Magnetic Island.

Under this legislation, council could issue penalties to those residents and businesses found not complying with the water restrictions.

Black Weir, which forms part of the city’s water supply network, was also closed for community use from the Ring Road Bridge to Ross River Dam.

Former Division 2 councillor Paul Jacob, a Team Jenny Hill breakaway, said Townsville City Council should have acted sooner to prevent a situation like this happening in the first place.

In his role as chair of the Water and Waste Committee from 2016-2019, Mr Jacob said he proposed to his colleagues on many occasions that a new water treatment plant be built to take the pressure off existing ones.

He said councillors disregarded his idea because they were only focused on securing money to fund the Haughton Pipeline.

Townsville has two water treatment plants, one at Douglas, which takes water from the Ross River and the other at Rollingstone, which pumps water from Paluma.

“I am so frustrated that it’s come to this and we haven’t got plans in place at Toonpan where the pipeline ends” he said.

“We need it badly, we would have averted the crisis because there would have already been a water main going into the city.

“I think they disregarded it because it is a big capital expenditure and the other councillors were only concerned with getting the Haughton Pipeline but I was looking to the future and taking into consideration the population growth we were already seeing.

“Hopefully this will spark them into building this other water treatment at Toonpan, which has been on the books for over 10 years.”

Mr Jacob said it was now time for the federal government to chip in and help secure the future of Townsville’s water supply.

“I would just like to see federal government and NAIF (Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund) to put their hand up and supply $200 million. “It would be a good start to fund the Toonpan project, which should now be a priority because it would mean we simply turn the pump on these new pipelines and we wouldn’t have the problem we have today.

“The state government has done quite a bit for Townsville and I really do take my hat off to them but when it comes to the federal government, they need to do more for infrastructure.”

As at 4pm yesterday, households across Townsville and Magnetic Island could shower and wash clothes and dishes, however, council asked residents to “conserve” water where possible.

Water restrictions outside the house remained in place, meaning no irrigation, no handheld watering, no filling of pools and no washing of vehicles or boats.

Commercial water customers were told to refer to the water use schedule on Townsville City Council’s disaster dashboard for guidance on activities they can undertake.

Originally published as Burst water pipe means residents forced to swelter through weekend without showers due to emergency water restrictions