Evaporation of the vision splendid

Most of the Sunwater storages throughout the southeast are well under a third full.

Nearby Maroon Dam, which also drains the impressive towering peaks of the Border Ranges stands at 21 per cent; Bjelke-Petersen Dam collecting water from a wide catchment in the South Burnett, including the Bunya Mountains, holds just 3 per cent of its 125 000 megalitre capacity.

Atkinson Dam, near Lowood is at 0 per cent; its picnic grounds understandably deserted, its remaining water puddle far off in the distance behind the water skiing signs.

All these dams share a common thread of optimism, the hope that the provision of a dependable water supply would somehow “drought-proof” the state and facilitate enhanced agriculture and easier living. To many who share this dream, that dams equate to a certainty of water supply, the present crisis is wholly attributable to our not having added to our portfolio of existing dams.

Now, four decades on, it might be as well to reflect on the reality.

South East Queensland gets nightly updates of the levels of the major domestic storages. Somerset, Wivenhoe and North Pine Dams are collectively at around 29 per cent. These figures look almost respectable compared to those previously mentioned, but anxiety about their low levels has lead to severe restrictions.

Property owners on the shores of Somerset Dam speak of having to regularly extend their fences out into what had been dam; and of their cattle now grazing on land recently exposed and now covered in grass.

The simple fact is that our dams are failing us.

It’s not the engineers’ fault. They built dams that held back water when it rained, but there’s that other variable that is well out of the control of every engineer, and also, as he has repeatedly rued, our Premier.

 “I can’t make it rain,” says Peter Beattie.

What he could do, though, is recognise that our water crisis comes from an almost total reliance on dams for water supply. Dams in the area of greatest population growth aren’t in fact the lowest. Changing rainfall patterns mean that Moogerah is getting fewer of the storms that gave it both its name and its desirability as a dam site.

Instead, his assessment of the situation is that if our existing dams aren’t holding enough water, then plainly we need more of them. If your wallet doesn’t contain much money, then obviously you need more wallets.