Showers that stink like sewage and sting people’s skin have become part of life in country towns across NSW, where fresh water is fast running out.
"Shindy’s Inn barmaid Jasmin Kew has developed itchy rashes on her body from showering at her Louth home in water that “smells like rotten eggs”.
Hundreds of kilometres away in the town of Murrurundi, Jules Cross can’t shower for more than two minutes before his skin stings from the chlorine added to the water that is trucked into town.
And over in Wilcannia, motel owner Deidre Sammon is brutally honest with her advice — bring bottled water with you because the water out of the tap looks clear but tastes “literally like sh*t”.
Welcome to life in our state’s parched country towns where water is running out fast. Entire communities are feeling the impact and relying solely on emergency water deliveries, as bores and rivers stop flowing after the driest two-year spell since records began in 1900.
In Louth, west of Bourke, Jasmin Kew’s filtered shower water is drawn from a stagnant pool on the Darling River, which stopped flowing four months ago. The water is contam inated with blue-green algae at levels considered “toxic to humans and animals” by the government. “I feel dirtier when I get out of the shower than when I get in, even though I shower as quickly as possible to avoid the disgusting stench,” Ms Kew said. “As soon as I get out of the shower I start scratching my arms.”
It’s the same story in Murrurundi, between Musswelbrook and Tamworth, where publican Jules Cross ends up in pain every time he has a shower and shivers at the thought of drinking the tap water. “It hurts to shower and you might drink it if you lived in a third world country, but I certainly won’t,” Mr Cross said.
Some schools in the state’s west have even been fitted with water coolers for kids who turn their noses up at foul-tasting bubblers."
"The state government will also provide bottled water for pregnant women and patients with ongoing illnesses in Walgett, Lightning Ridge, White Cliffs and Wilcannia.
At Wilcannia, in the state’s far west, where more than 500 people live, there’s only 48 days of water left in the Darling River, which is used for evaporative airconditioning, flushing toilets and fighting fires.
The NSW Rural Fire Service will tomorrow host a crisis meeting in Wilcannia to figure out how the local brigade will extinguish house fires if the hydrants run dry.
The water out of the Darling River is so dirty in Wilcannia, air conditioners and washing machines are clogging up and breaking down.
Fresh drinking water storages ran out last November and the local treatment plant now filters water from two bores, which “tastes like shit”, according to Wilcannia Motel owner and tourism operator Deidre Sammon. Anyone staying at the Wilcannia Motel is encouraged to bring bottled water with them.
“The water out of the tap looks clear but it just tastes horrible — literally like shit,” Mrs Sammon said. “It’s disgusting and depressing. It’s not good for anyone’s state of mind.”
A road train runs treated water to residents on the outskirts of Wilcannia every day, while at nearby White Cliffs there’s 78 days of water left for the town. If it runs out, residents will rely on a daily delivery by road train from three hours’ drive away in Broken Hill. The entire state is gripped by drought, with the severity ranging from “intense drought” (32.4%) to “drought” (49%), “drought affected” (18.5%) and “recovering” (0.1%)."
Cont.
Jaxson Flores
>live in the desert >have no water
why is this news
Noah Adams
This is at least partly due to the green SA government insisting on the Darling mouth being fresh and never brackish like it should be.
Xavier Sanders
"The past year has been the driest on record across huge swathes of farming land in the north and far west of the state, which was made worse by the 10th driest summer ever in NSW. In Walgett, residents can have a three-minute shower once a day or a 10cm-deep bath. They can only put two loads of washing on each week, and even kiddy pools have been banned.
Even so, the state’s new Town Water Supply coordinator James McTavish says the situation has become critical for many. He has spent the past three weeks sourcing information from government agencies and people on the ground to find a solution to drinking water shortages. “Nowhere in NSW where there’s a town water supply is the water unsafe to drink, although it may not be palatable or it smells funny or feels slimy to the touch,” he said.
“For a lot of places this has been creeping for a long time and now reached a critical stage. We’re playing catch-up with this, which is a problem and in some areas where there’s been less focus the circumstances are more dire. But this is all fixable, it just requires the right engineering and logistics solutions.”"
Wow, first USA and now Australia. Capitalism is shit.
Eli Johnson
Calif*rnians secured all fresh water rights in the SW to maintain their sprawling urban rot. Now it's making people sick. We have too many people in this country. Immigration needs to stop.
My school bubblers always tasted like rust, they have never been good at public schools.
Adrian Reyes
Shouldn't have ousted Tony Abbot. I'm 100% confident he would pushy around the country delivering bottled water to everyone.
On a serious note, it's fucking dry Anons, feeling the pinch in areas of SE QLD too. Pic related I took this morning, these cunts survive in the desert and even they're starting to wilt.
Sulfur in the water making it smell like eggs isn’t sewage....
Aaron Green
Interesting someone from China is posting this. Sorry but capitalism didnt do this. This is due to stupid fools who live in cities constantly outvoting people in the bush who need certain things done, but dont get listened to. Idiots in USA are also pushing that the "Flyover states" just want to be like people in the cities. This is deliberate. This is ignorant. Its pollies becoming polarised and not supporting bipartisan ideas like "lets help out the people who make our food". Aus is a special place too. Last month it hit 52 Degrees celcius in a Queensland town. As someone pointed out, its people trying to survive in a desert. But, thats were the sheep and cattle are. Giving unlimited handouts to people UNWILLING to work for their welfare payments, whilst saying, for the 30th year in my living memory, "Tough shit farmers, but you are always whinging about how hot it is, and if it isnt the drought, then your crops are being flooded out", does nothing to help. Only thing that will help is an understanding that 2-5 billion people need to die, and they need to die, now, in order for the amount of polution drop, and the amount of mouths to feed needs to drop. China has about 2 billion people, yes?
Julian Gonzalez
Gee willikers Batman wouldn't have anything to do with SANTOS fracking now would it? Nah probably just a coincidence.
Nathaniel Wood
>Interesting someone from China is posting this. Implying I am a Dengist and in China, fuck off cunt. You have shit judgement. >Sorry but capitalism didnt do this So it wasnt the "human nature" and greed is good? > Giving unlimited handouts to people UNWILLING to work for their welfare payments Pretty much voluntary gulags you are absolutely oblivious to the number of jobs that had been scarce to the amount of applicants (le 10 centuries experience) along with HR and recruitment agencies wanting "stable employment" histories so it had been a vicious cicle for applicants. Meanwhile you would unironically eat ass over a "business leader" underreporting their income by 10 times to get more of a refund than someone on welfare for a year and he would still not give you a job. Welfare keeps people from crime and away from poverty.
Capitalism and all its glory caused it, previously they could work the land but the drought and the water siphoning made it so much worse and it self evident.
Blake Fisher
are you blaming capitalism for a drought?
Josiah Clark
youtu.be/gNbSazIqVYA Daily reminder that the Australian government is a bunch of cunts who couldnt care less about this country
Levi Bennett
Are you blaming communism for not reading this in its entirety? >Capitalism and all its glory caused it, previously they could work the land but the drought and the water siphoning made it so much worse and it self evident.
Brayden Roberts
>dies of forced famine ah yes lovely communism certainly not as corrupt in any way and without all that pesky freedom
Thomas Carter
California is having a record El Niño year, which means the western edges of the Pacific are having an unusually dry 'winter' period. I think that's how it works, anyway.
Jason Morgan
I don't give a fuck about somebody's commie propaganda, I'm talking about the drought, are you blaming capitalism for the drought that underlies the lack of water?
Xavier Cooper
>be leaf >food is expensive >buys less and less food >water is filthy >dies Let me guess, the "system works"
Literally pushing a square peg through a round hole you are and I dont give a fuck about you go be a cock sleeve for Israel and give more aid. The drought was made worse by water siphoning. Capitalism caused the filthy water and water shortages, it was bad but never that bad as it is now.
Desert communities should seriously develop a "circuit" based water/sewer system. As gross as it may sound, modern sewage treatment plants are extremely effective, and the water they discharge is cleaner than the body it's going into.
Chase Richardson
It's not the people that use the bulk of it, it's the agriculture, account for 80 percent of water usage.
While there are dederts, the farming happens in the Mediterranean climate valleys, the central valley has tons of water flowing into it.
Just like everything in california, the state mismanages it. And, due to the cyclic nature of the climate, there are like 2 years that get really bad every 10 years, then an el Nino happens.
Its gets clicks, so of course they are going to make it sound very bad.
Jeremiah Evans
>ends up in pain every time he has a shower and shivers at the thought of drinking the tap water How the fuck is this happening in my country? The government's turning a blind eye to one of the industries syphoning off every drop they can get past the legal limit.
If the water were in that state I would be taking sponge baths.
