A move to extend the weir at Chinaman Creek Dam at Cloncurry will have ''massive benefit for the community'', according the shire's mayor Andrew Daniels.
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Work on raising the existing weir, by more than two metres, to 3.5 metres began yesterday.
Cr Daniels expects the extension will allow Cloncurry households to have nearly double the amount of allocated water a year.
Work to extend the weir is expected to take six weeks, just in time to coincide with the first rainfall of the wet season.
Cr Daniels described the development as a credit to the community, who came together to help fund the project.
Cr Daniels praised the efforts of the community, with businesses offering in-kind support to help fund the project.
''Everyone came together because it's going to be so beneficial for the community so they all wanted to be part of it,'' he said.
Cr Daniels said the benefits of raising the weir would mean it could hold more water in Chinaman's Dam after it rains.
''We will be able to harness water into the dam as soon as it rains,'' he said.
''Chinaman Creek let us down again this year and the river only ran once last year but it didn't run hard enough for it to harness water.
''With the weir extension, we will then have the capacity to harness water.''
Chinaman Creek Dam is currently at less than 20 per cent capacity.
Cr Daniels said the project was estimated to cost $2 million but through in-kind support he hoped it would cost the council about $500,000.
He said businesses had chipped in with materials and the use of machinery to help get the project off the ground.
Cr Daniels was holding on to hope for a big wet, but said Chinaman Creek had ``run every year for the past 100 years''.
''This has massive benefit to the whole of the North West,'' he said.
''It's just another example of the Cloncurry Shire Council being proactive and trying to better our lifestyle out here to make living as cheap as possible.
''No way in the world can people can survive when they pay more for water than they do for petrol, milk or beer.''
Cr Daniels said the benefit to the ratepayer would be significant.
''Council will start looking at giving the ratepayer a larger quantity of water and they won't have to pay excess water fee,'' he said.
''At the moment, they are on 800 kilolitres a household - we're hoping to increase that to 1500 kilolitres a household.
''By doing that, it gives the opportunity to grow a garden how they want and keep everything green.''