Well, what happens when the well runs dry ?
Everyone just packs up and goes somewhere else.

What else can you do when you turn the tap on and nothing comes out.
Sydney is not all that far away from the same situation.
The dams are down to 40% and falling at between 0.5% and 0.3 % a week.
So how nay weeks is that ? Sure there will be some rain but what if it doesn't ?

Every home should be fitted with a rainwater tank and the water could be used for toilets & washing etc.
The other requirement would be that no more development applications for homes be accepted by councils.
After all we cannot keep accepting 1000 new residents a week.

Leigh, if you think it was a good idea for John Howard to insist that Toowoomba vote on recycled water, why didn't he do the same for the whole of Australia before imposing unpopular legislation such as 'Workchoices' on us? Personally, I have more faith in Toowoomba Council to deliver safe recycled water than I have in the fairness of Workchoices.

That said, I don't believe that government initiatives should be subject to referenda, except where required by the Commonwealth Constitution. Howard should have left the decision to Toowoomba Council and let them get on with it.

Hasbeen -

Toowoomba treated effluent has 800 mg/L of total dissolved solids (or salts) http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/water/toowoomba_directions.html
and sea water has 35,000 mg/L or 40 times as much. It costs more to get 40 times as much salt out of the water.

Thanks amber for the recent mayoral history.

You wrote;

“You might also like to know that if it had not been for the good management and future planning of previous councils, particularly when Mr Berghofer was a member of the council from 1973 - 1992, Toowoomba would have run dry long ago.”

I don’t know about Clive Berghofer’s reign, but good management and future planning was obviously terribly lacking in some if not all previous councils going back many years. Of course there were some improvements to water provision as the town grew. But it is now blatantly evident that this went hand in hand with the growth of the town, and did not lead to an improvement in water security when it was really needed. So in that sense, the councils certainly did not practice good management and proper future planning.

Thanks ericc, thats what I wanted to know. I knew todays treated effluent was reasonable stuff, but had no idea how good.

Adolf Hitler shortly before invading Poland:

"In insisting on a referendum and then seeing it fail, The German People will have increased the level of participatory democracy at the expense of good governance.

Ze war begins tomorrow

... Zeik Heil!"

Does anyone here seriously believe for example that a plebiscite on 'building homes for 100,000 new immigrants into Sydney every year and probably garages for an extra 50,000 or so new cars to go with them', would come back as a 'Yes, go ahead'?

The fact that NSW Labor will do this anyway is a nothing short of a criminal act. That isn't good governance its feudalism.

There are clearly some things that must NOT be included in electoral mandates. There is a major flaw in our system of government here, in our federal constitution, and it needs to be sorted out before we go much further into this third millenium.

The spectre of feudalism and subsequent wars that scourged most of the second millenium must not be allowed to reemerge and take root in the third.