I’m a regular walker out at Lake Moondarra and whenever I do, I’ll always walk up to the dam wall.
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Apart from admiring the view I also like to look at the dam level, and at the moment it is a bit concerning.
It reminds me of the world news we are hearing about Cape Town in South Africa.
The city is in the middle of its worst drought in a century, with dams around 17% full and at this stage the taps are set to run dry on April 12, making it the first international city to run out of water.
It is a dire situation for the city and for South Africa and I don’t think authorities there really know what is going to happen after April 12 despite all their contingency measures.
Now while I know this is a worst-case scenario and our situation is nowhere near as bad, it is still food for thought as the mayor of Mount Isa calls out for people to use less water in our city.
The city is currently on level 2 water restrictions with water levels at Lake Moondarra is sitting at 33% – just twice as much as Cape Town’s dams.
Of course we have Lake Julius in reserve sitting at 73.4% but it is expensive to pump water 100km down to the city from this reservoir – and points out the need to quickly get that long promised solar pump up and running.
Both our lakes are down a good 30% on this time last year and here we are heading towards the end of our supposed “wet season” with very little rain in the gauges and less on the horizon.
It’s not too much to suggest that our supplies could go down another 20-30% in the next 12 months.
And if there is no rain again next year, how long does it take us to get to a Cape Town situation?
I realise I am being a bit alarmist here but the point is that it was just a few bad years allied to climate change that caught South African authorities out.
It’s good that Mount Isa City Council are urging citizens to be water wise in their homes and gardens and enforce Level 2 restrictions but as a society we need to think more about how to secure our longer-term supply or face nightmarish consequences – Derek Barry