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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-10-18 Daily Xml
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Flinders Ranges Water Quality

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:18): I rise today to talk about some of the water issues in my electorate, specifically the water issues in the community of Quorn. These issues are not just isolated to Quorn; Quorn shares the issues when it comes to water quality with the communities of Wilmington and Melrose. Quorn has the largest population in the Flinders Ranges, sitting at some 1,300 people. Wilmington and Melrose are significantly smaller. They all suffer from very poor quality water.

I know that the Flinders Ranges Council has been beavering away for many years trying to get this issue addressed, and indeed it was addressed in Hawker, which is part of the Flinders Ranges Council. I think Pat Conlon was the minister at the time, and Hawker ended up getting a desal plant. When it comes to a community like Quorn, it is not so much a desal plant that is needed but a connection to the system that serves Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Whyalla and other regional communities.

SA Water have yet again knocked them back just recently when it comes to an improvement in the services, even though they identified that it is a priority. The Flinders Ranges Council have written to the Essential Services Commission to see if there can be a reconsideration of this decision, otherwise it is going to be yet another four years before the potential to get a guernsey is going to happen.

There is a long-term plan for improving drinking water aesthetics at Quorn, Melrose and Wilmington. The use of the word 'aesthetics' is interesting because the poor water quality goes way beyond mere aesthetics. The plan has several important points. Quorn is identified as the priority across South Australia across all communities identified. Customer satisfaction with overall water quality was the lowest amongst Quorn residents compared with other regional communities. Residents from Quorn are the least likely to use mains water as their primary drinking source; in fact, only 3 per cent of the population dare to drink the water from the tap.

Issues with hardness, salinity and damage to pipes are some of the main concerns for the residents. It is not just damage to pipes: it is damage to plant and equipment for households and for businesses. For 53 per cent of respondents from Quorn, if water quality were to improve, their use of mains water would increase. Quorn was the most heavily attended session during the community sessions that SA Water had, so there was a large turnout, which is a reflection of the concerns that the community have.

They identified that basic stuff like replacing taps, replacing air conditioners and replacing other equipment at houses and businesses is commonplace and far more so than in other regional communities. Residents in Quorn report a much higher incidence of having to replace pipes and plumbing both inside businesses and their houses. Using their mains water they are not able to grow their gardens in Quorn, so there is that overwhelming reliance on rainwater. A number of comments were made in response to the SA Water survey, and some of them touch on health issues:

My son has constant skin infection from the terrible quality water, I have lived in a lot of places in Australia [and] it is by far the worst here!

Another respondent said:

We cannot drink our tap water; our laundry machine has been already replaced once this year due to white chemical build up. We can only give our pets bottled or rainwater…it is honestly unacceptable and makes me feel like moving away from Quorn.

Someone said, 'I feel sick when I drink the water,' and the list goes on, so there is a real issue. It needs to be addressed, and it will come at a cost, but that cost can be amortised over many years. The people of Quorn deserve better than they are getting, as do—I will let the member for Stuart talk on this—the communities of Melrose and Wilmington.

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