Residents are losing at least $1 million a week operating desalination and water recycling plants in Queensland’s flooded southeast.
As Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman yesterday warned of a possible repeat of the floods that devastated Brisbane in 1974, it emerged that the cost of construction of the now-redundant drought-proofing amounted to $3700 for each household in the nation’s fastest-growing region.
The Gold Coast desalination plant and Brisbane’s recycled water scheme together ran up a $57m loss in the year to June 30 — losses to the taxpayer of more than $1m a week.
The losses would have been even higher — $86.1m — had it not been for a $28.5m tax writedown.
WaterSecure, the state government entity also known as the Queensland Manufactured Water Authority, wrote down the value of the barely used infrastructure by $61.6m through depreciation last financial year.
Taxpayers also spent $118m — or more than $2m a week — on interest payments for drought-proofing projects last financial year.
The $2.5 billion Western Corridor recycled water scheme, which now restricts water supplies to power stations after a public outcry over government plans to purify sewage into drinking water, lost $35.5m last financial year.
Depreciation of the scheme cost taxpayers $31.2m, while interest payments were $78.8m.
The $1.2bn Gold Coast desalination plant — officially handed to the state government only last week after having to undergo repairs for rust — lost $16.9m.
Depreciation cost $24.7m and interest payments cost $25.8m.
The desalination plant is running at one-third capacity, even though the region’s dams are overflowing.
The Bligh government is refusing to hand over the contracts for the infrastructure, citing commercial confidentiality.
Premier Anna Bligh commissioned both projects when Queensland was gripped by drought, with the state’s southeast’s dams drained to barely 16 per cent full in 2007.
Water authorities yesterday opened the floodgates on the Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam as well as additional floodgates at Wivenhoe Dam, which was built to mitigate flooding in Brisbane, for the first time since 1999.
Mr Newman warned residents not to be complacent about the possibility of 1974-style flood, which killed 14 people and flooded 7000 homes.
“This is a flood-prone city - no amount of engineering work … will ultimately deal with the fact that Brisbane will flood again one day,” Mr Newman told ABC radio yesterday.
“This sort of rainfall leading up to the true wet season … could have very significant flooding damage in the suburbs of Brisbane.”
Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson said yesterday that residents needed to be “alive to that possibility”.
“This is rainfall like we have not seen for many, many years,” he said. “Monthly rainfall records have been broken.”
Mr Robertson said the desalination plant had been useful yesterday for supplying fresh drinking water, after mud contaminated one of the treatment plants.
“Once again, the desalination plant has proved to be a useful addition to our water assets,” he said.
