Evaporation of the vision splendid

His newly announced additions include a mega-dam at Traveston across the Mary River, a smaller dam at Wyaralong across Teviot Brook near Boonah and raising of both Borumba and Hinze dams and a few other storages as well.

It’s an assessment he hopes will be shared by voters, at least those who still share that axiomatic “dam equals more water” connection. Many though, are questioning how dams that can’t possibly begin to fill until at least 2011 will be any use at all in a crisis that could well crunch in just two years time if significant rains don’t fall.

The Beattie government’s newest, the Paradise Dam that drowns the Burnett River, northwest of Childers, was recently named in an international list of failed dams. It was hoped that after the wall was completed last year, the dam would fill quickly but it is currently at only 15 per cent. It is an expensive fulfillment (no pun intended) of an electoral promise for which we’ll still be paying years hence.

You can understand why there’s far more outcry about the Mary and Wyaralong Dams than from just those who stand to be displaced. Councils the length of the Mary have spoken out in opposition, and rural groups, environmentalists and church groups have added a long list of concerns.

Many are comparing Premier Beattie’s approach and vision to that of Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Making the long walk, down through the cracked mud toward the receding shoreline of Bjelke-Petersen Dam, you can almost feel the vision splendid evaporating as surely as the dam’s contents.

While many farmers we encountered were making the most of the opportunity to excavate and deepen their dams in anticipation of eventual rain, no such activity was taking place in the bigger dams. It seemed it was simply easier to just build a new one.

At a time when most water authorities are diversifying their supply options, shouldn’t a first priority be reflecting on the success of the status quo?

The red dots tell the story. Without good run-off rain, a dam is just an expensive wall.

It’s time we faced the fact that our dams aren’t working.