a public disgrace …
- The Beagle
- Oct 15, 2017
- 2 min read
Dear Beagle Editor, Your readers in Akolele and in the Bega Shire might be interested in our latest media release regarding drinking water. a public disgrace …
Recently the Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association (BVSRRA) received the following comment from a resident on the quality of his family’s drinking water …
“I have to let the tap run sometimes for minutes before it will run clear ... the council regularly vents dirty water from the mains directly in front of my house so they are well aware ... so where is my discount for all the water I HAVE to waste??
It would be at least 20 % of the water they provide is unusable???
Not to mention the cost of buying water to drink (I literally can't drink the brown over chlorinated crap) which is a further $12 a week.
I have two young kids and am a low income earner ... I am literally considering leaving the shire where I grew up and my parents still live.
Disgraceful.”
Not just disgraceful; but also scandalous & shameful, as well as legalised theft.
Australia is supposedly a first world country but the NSW government & Bega Valley Shire Council (BVSC) cannot even provide basic services such as the provision of quality drinking water.
In support of their grand plan to turn the shire into a tourist Mecca, the NSW government & BVSC can find $50M to underwrite the commercial interests of the cruise ship industry & $7M to expand Merimbula Airport to service their delusion that 600,000 visitors will soon fly in & out every year, while they can also manage to find the pork bellies to underwrite a $3M bike track from Tathra to Bega.
Meanwhile, while the architects of those grand schemes also busy themselves trying to bludgeon the community into welcoming the fluoridation of the shire’s drinking water, they can’t even supply a quality glass of water to anyone who might have the nerve to expect it.
This shambles is not just a scandalous failure of public policy, but it is an outright abuse of the residents & ratepayers of the Bega Valley Shire.
As long as BVSC & the NSW Government fail to commit to firm & timely action to address this obscene situation, the Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, & our elected councillors should hide their faces in shame.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
