Power and Water to move on Yuelamu water problem after nearly a year

HOMES in the remote community of Yuelamu are still without freshwater nearly a year after toxic blue-green algae was detected in the nearby reservoir.

Sheraella Jones at Yuelamu's only water source at the top of a hill. PICTURE: Zach Hope

HOMES in the remote community of Yuelamu are still without fresh water nearly a year after toxic blue-green algae was detected in the nearby reservoir.

While residents can still wash their clothes using reservoir water, to get drinking water they must go to the top of the community’s hill and fill up five-litre jerry cans supplied by Power and Water from a solitary tap.

Residents in the desert community – about 300km northwest of Alice Springs – were warned not to drink water from their taps in October last year.

PWC has only now announced plans to install a dual reticulation system and will update the Local Authority at a town meeting this week.

The system will pump bore water to homes instead of reservoir water. The cost is expected to be more than $1 million.

The community’s water treatment facility was built in 2013 at a cost of nearly $2 million and was supposed to secure the town’s long-term water supply.

But its design did not take into account the possibility of blue-green algae infecting the reservoir.

It cannot pump the bore water to households through the existing pipe infrastructure because it was designed to process only a blend of bore and reservoir water.

The NT News understands the facility in its current form is now useless.

A study from an independent water quality specialist earlier this year found the algal bloom was most likely to stay there, meaning the reservoir is finished as a water source.

This has led to community concerns about the sustainability of the bore.

It is believed birds brought blue-green algae to the reservoir.