The so-called "drought" in Brisbane is the biggest con I've ever heard of. Just walking around this lush, subtropical city is proof that water still falls from the sky. My lawn hasn't been watered in 4 months and is still emerald-green - so where is the water coming from, then? While other Australian capitals have the typical dry, scrubby "Australian bush" look, Brisbane is so green.

This "drought" is nothing other than a government beat-up to divert attention from poor planning and maintenance of water infrastructure. One million more people have entered SEQ in the past 15 or so years - no wonder Wivenhoe Dam is draining. The Brisbane city council and state government have raked in loads more rates and taxes from these new residents but have not reinvested adequately in water infrastructure. So when all else fails, blame Mother Nature.
What is more amazing, the usually cynical and suspicious Australian electorate have swallowed the government's propaganda hook, line and sinker. It's like they've suddenly turned into antipodean North Koreans - outdoing each other in slashing water usage to meet Dear Leader's targets, informing on neighbours who break the rules and condemning "gardening thought-criminals" who dare question whether they want to plant a patriotic dry cactus garden. All of this to give show loyalty and devotion to a government that has failed us in the delivery of an essential service. The lack of questioning is pathetic.

Luckily Brisbane will never turn into a parched-looking bush capital like Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra or Perth because no matter what the government wants to believe it still rains way enough here to water all our lush subtropical greenery. They are just too miserly to spend the money to catch and distribute it to homes through the water pipes. Probably their plan is to run the water service right down, sell it off cheaply to a private operator who will then charge us through the nose for a proper water supply. Let's wait and see...and in the meantime, I'm NOT going to plant a "loyal" cactus and gravel garden in MY front yard.

Good article, thanks. Once you've got your tank, you need to look after it and the water it collects. The following link points to a largish document that provides guidance on the use of rainwater tanks. http://enhealth.nphp.gov.au/council/pubs/pdf/rainwater_tanks.pdf

cheers

Control of dengue epidemics should involve attempts to geographically contain the spread of infection, use of house screening, and the removal of mosquito breeding sites such as water tanks.

Dengue mosquito is now near Bundaberg and its spread has been linked to water tanks.

Steve Madden, your claim that water tanks are a source of dengue fever is an inexcusable part-truth. Three of my four houses have no mains water and have a mix of tanks. The only time that mosquito larvae have been present in my weekender's tank has been when the tank was left brim full for a few weeks so the mossies could dip their butt through the intake gauze and lay their eggs in the water just beneath it.

In the rental houses there is no such problem because the water level drops from use by the residents and even an extra centimetre of clearance is all that is needed to stop the "problem".

Please refrain from making ill-considered statements that have only a tenuous link with the facts.

Restricting the availability of potential breeding habitats for Ae. aegypti will help to reduce mosquito densities and therefore reduce the possibility of disease transmission. All containers capable of holding water in the domestic environment can provide habitat for the larval stage of the mosquito and this includes water-barrels, rainwater tanks, wells.

Further Reading

Boughton, C.R. (1996). Australian Arboviruses of Medical Importance. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Melbourne, pp 67.

Gubler, D.J. (1988). Dengue. in Monath, T. (ed). The Arboviruses: Epidemiology and Ecology, Volume II. CRC Press, Florida, pg: 233-261.

Gubler, D.J. and Kuno, G. (eds). (1997). Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. CAB International. Cambridge.

Sorry, Steve, you are still only part right. The containers must be accessible to the mosquito to lay eggs in. If they cannot drop their butt into the water they do not lay eggs in the vessel. Both the inlet and overflow vents have gauze covering which severely restricts the utility of the tank water to mosquitoes.

And if you were looking for a major source of egg laying sites in the tropics and sub-tropics one would be bound to nominate the numerous small pools formed where the branches join large senescent (old growth) trees in forests. There can be more than 10 to 15 of these little nooks in a single old growth tree and a typical piece of old growth that has never been logged would have 20 to 30 such trees per hectare.

So a single hectare of national park could deliver more breeding places for mosquitoes than 450 water tanks (without gauze). Think about it, if SE Queensland has 2.5 million people at 2.7 people per house it is just over 900,000 houses which, if each had a water tank, be as much risk as only 2000 hectares of old growth national park.

Can I respectfully suggest you find a web site to download some common sense.