{"id":224687,"date":"2018-12-04T21:27:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T11:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=224687"},"modified":"2020-09-22T12:10:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T02:10:45","slug":"consultant-tipped-for-water-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/12\/04\/consultant-tipped-for-water-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Consultant Tipped For Water Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell (Photo: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 4, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

A consultant with proven expertise in scoping water projects could be engaged to examine future water security options for the South and North Burnett.<\/p>\n

South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell said he would be talking over the idea with North Burnett Mayor Rachel Chambers later this week.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack announced last month that both regions had been allocated $1 million each to fund feasibility studies into water projects as part of a Federal Government initiative to help drought-proof Australia.<\/p>\n

Last week – after receiving assurances from Canberra the grant was not dependent on the outcome of the next Federal election – Mayor Campbell held a public meeting in Kingaroy to get the views of farmers and agribusinesses about possible future water projects.<\/p>\n

The Mayor said he believed the South and North Burnett should pool their grant money to undertake a joint feasibility study across both regions, because they share common water issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Since the State Government will have to put up some of its own money to build whatever might come out of this process, I think the best way forward might be to ask the Department of Natural Resources to recommend a consultant we should use,” the Mayor said.<\/p>\n

He was also aware a lot of work identifying possible drought-proofing solutions for the South Burnett had been undertaken in previous years, and thought the same might be true of the North Burnett .<\/p>\n

So part of any feasibility study would involve retrieving these earlier studies, testing if they were still viable and if they were, discovering why they had not been pursued.<\/p>\n

The Mayor said the need for better and more reliable irrigation had been identified as a key issue by the Wide Bay-Burnett Regional Organisation of Councils, and he was convinced obtaining more water for the region would generate economic growth and new jobs.<\/p>\n

However, he thought it was just as important the region’s farmers and agribusinesses “got aboard” the process.<\/p>\n

“It’s no use getting more water for our region if our agricultural producers don’t take advantage of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’d hope their input would be part of any consultation process.”<\/p>\n

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