Water points feel pressure

Demand for stock, domestic supplies really heats up

Written by SALLY EVANS. Wangaratta Chronicle 6 Feb 09

DEMAND for stock and domestic water is placing increased pressure on public water points across the Rural City of Wangaratta.

The standpipe at Bowser landfill has run dry with water being sapped from the underground resource faster than it can be replenished.

Alternative sites are being investigated at Wangaratta and Tarrawingee, while new water points are also planned for Eldorado, Moyhu and Killawarra.

Wangaratta council’s community and social planning executive manager, Ann Heywood, said weeks of hot weather and little rain was starting to take its toll in the northern district of the rural city in particular.

"The situation is really bad again," she said.

"People become very stressed and we appreciate that.

"They are really desperately looking for water at the moment."

The dire situation has again prompted warnings about the use of water points, which are meant for drought relief purposes only.

"People have to be cautious in using water and realise that it’s not an endless resource," Ms Heywood said.

"The bores out of town are not meant for commercial people to use, and water should be put in a tank and not a dam otherwise you lose a lot through evaporation and leakage."

Council provides water points at Apex Park and Wangaratta saleyards for drinking, and at Bowser landfill, Warby Range Road on the Ovens River, Springhurst, Greta West and Boorhaman for stock.

An application has also been made to sink a bore at Murmungee for public use.