“It doesn’t matter where you go in Australia – you talk about Toowoomba and they say that’s where you drink recycled sewage.”
Bannerman is not in the least disturbed by the prospect of having the water from recycled sewage, treated to potable standards and returned to water storages in South-Eastern Queensland. He is quite disturbed at the shrieking from demented OCD sufferers the likes of Clive Berghofer, who can’t get past the idea that what they’ll have to drink is faeces straight from the bowl. For fuck sake, Clive……wake up will you? You’re an embarrassment to yourself and to the finest inland city in the country, Toowoomba.
Berghofer put up a blog during the recent Toowoomba rate-payers plebesite which linked directly to this rag. Bannerman urges the reader to have a quick scan through this document, and note just how many references there are to the drinking of poo or poo-water. The polemic and hyperbole is simply so far out there as to be deemed to be fanatical. A photo of a sewage primary aeration tank with the sub-text “Is this our city’s water future?”. Seriously, Clive and this is meant very seriously, do you really believe that when you turn on a tap in five years time, a brown-coloured, evil-smelling sludge is going to issue forth? If you do, then you’re not even in the debate. You clearly have no understanding of what water recycling is all about, nor do you have any inkling of how the product will be handled once it’s been recycled. Ever sat at the shoreline of Lake Wivenhoe, Atkinson Dam, Somerset Dam and taken a deep breath in? Have you noticed how many cattle wander into the water to drink in one end and shat out the other? And the fish, Clive!! Fish shit in our drinking water!!! *GASP* That’s gotta be yukky-poo.
No, this entire debate over do we or don’t we take the rational and responsible step of recycling our waste water back into our drinking supplies – which are treated again to potable standards, Clive – has become an utter nonsense with the media actually paying more attention to the shriekers and moaners like Clive Berghofer, than they are of the scientists who are the only people capable of delivering the true facts on the matter.
And Berghofer isn’t the only moaner to take note of. in 2002, in response to a Qld govt request for funding, the Prime Minister replied that ‘funding would be unavailable and questioned the advisability of a scheme which involved substantial public funding for private benefit for a limited group of property owners.’ Of course, that was before John Howard became ecologically aware and global warming friendly.
Science provides numerous resources for clarification of the benefits and rationale for employing recycled water, both directly and indirectly. The proof of indirect recycling, as proposed by the Queensland government, is already in the drinking. We, those who ultimately pay for the technology and even more ultimately, drink the end product, have no need to the completely baseless scaremongering of doddery old dipshits like Clive Berghofer or pretend apologists for global warming like Little Johnny Howler. Bannerman praises Chairman Beattie for taking his political gonads in both hands and moving ahead with recycling poo-water. Onyer Pete!