Share your water stories during National Water Week

This year’s theme is “Our Water Stories” which encourages our community to be more aware about how they use water in their everyday lives.

Council’s Director of Engineering and Commercial Infrastructure, Jason Devitt, said the Mackay region was lucky to have some of the best water in Australia.

“This year we have once again taken out a number of water awards – The IXOM Water of Origin Competition, which pitted us against New South Wales’s top water, and more recently the Best Tasting Water in Queensland award,” Mr Devitt said.

“This is the fourth time in five years water from our region has been named Top Drop and this is testament to our highly professional team as well as the beautiful river we have right on our doorstep,” he said.

“The beautiful waterways that surround us play a significant role in our lifestyles.

“In Mackay we are extremely fortunate to have the iconic Pioneer River running through our city – a constant reminder of the value and importance of water in our community.

“We also have so many beautiful beaches that allow access to so many amazing water activities such as swimming, fishing and boating.

“Our waterways are a major part of all of our water stories.”

Mr Devitt said council also had a role to play in residents’ water stories.

“At council we are committed to providing the best water and water services to our region,” Mr Devitt said.

“Council couldn’t get that great tasting water to homes without the fantastic water network and infrastructure that supplies it,” he said.

“We are continuing to roll out our integrated water meters across the region.

“The integrated devices are the latest technology in water meters and have the automatic meter reader (AMR) built into the mechanism of the meter.

“These devices are replacing existing meters as they reach the end of their life span,” he said.

“They also allow us to monitor your water usage in real time and provide that data to you via the free myh2o website.

“As always, we strongly encourage residents to sign up to myh2o, to help keep track of how much water they are using each day, how much it’s costing them and how they can better improve their behaviours around water usage.”

National Water Week is the perfect opportunity for everyone to monitor their water use and think of ways to save.

Some simple water saving tips include keeping showers to four minutes or less, turn off taps when washing your hands, fix dripping taps and only water outdoors every second day before 10am after 4pm.

For more water saving tips visit council’s website mackay.qld.gov.au/water.