Drought-stricken rural Queenslanders are outraged after the Southern Downs Regional Council approved a Chinese-owned mine to extract nearly 100 million litres of local groundwater a year for commercial plastic bottling, at the same time as residents are being placed on extreme water restrictions and the Southern Queensland town of Stanthorpe is relying on trucked-in water:
The Chinese-owned Royal Duke Holdings… has succeeded in winning approval for its groundwater mining venture on various conditions, including upgrading nearby roads.
According to its application to council, the company wants to build a “water extraction and distribution facility” using underground water from a fractured rock aquifer and sell the product to commercial water bottlers on the Gold Coast…
The approval came as the council was preparing residents to get used to using just 80 litres of water per person a day and to adopt practices such as three-minute showers and washing clothes only every third day…
Local property owner and fourth-generation cattle farmer Andrew O’Dea, who lives about 5km from the proposed water extraction site, said he was “pretty gutted” by the council’s decision.
“This mine is going to have a severe impact on our groundwater supplies,” he said. “With the conditions the region is experiencing at the moment, I expected a different outcome.”
Mr O’Dea said he and other landholders opposing the venture were given no notice that the council was about to make a decision on the water mine application and urged the state government to intervene.
“There is no excuse to justify taking 96 million litres of water a year out of the aquifer. The risk is just too high,” he said.
This makes no sense. Trucking in water for the locals whilst giving a Chinese owned company permission to take vast amounts of water from the underground water supply to sell environmentally destructive bottled water on the Gold Coast.
Australia has hit peak stupid.
