Now you may or may not have heard but one of Brisbane's water treatment plants was taken off line due to the silt in the river from the flooding. The Premier & Lord Mayor have asked Brisbane residents to conserve water - back to the old 4 minute shower rule - till the plant is back on line.
Now besides the fact that I didn't realize that our drinking water came from the Brisbane River down stream of the Wivenhoe Dam, this caused an unusual reaction at the Sunnybank shopping centre near where I live.
Yesterday afternoon, my wife was up there getting groceries when she rang and asked what I knew about the water being turned off? I said I'd heard that we'd been asked to conserve water but nothing else. Apparently people were panic buying water and when my wife asked why people were buying 30 odd 2l bottles of water at a time she was told that the water was not safe to drink and was going to be shut off!
I told her what I knew that the water was supposed to be safe to drink but may taste funny. It was decided she buy a couple of 1l bottles to get her through the next 48 hours for drinking purposes. We didn't really need any more - certainly not 30 bottles - as the boys drink milk and me, well I'll just stick to wine & scotch!
It's amazing just how a simple request by the government can be blown out of proportion. As Lance Corporal Jack Jones from Dad's Army would say, "Don't Panic!".
The Lord Mayor was explaining that bottled water might be provided in some southern suburbs if their reservoirs ran dry. A particularly bright reporter then asked if that water would be brought in by truck?
Hence my vehement disregard and dislike of TV, expecially panic-merchants Channel 9 and drama queens Channel 7. I'll stick to Aunty or SBS on the BRIEF moments of TV per year.
There was panic buying up here too.People didn't know how long it was going to last etc, and thought it was going to be like the floods. STUPID sheeple were buying refrgerator perishables en-bulk. WHY???? The power goes off, your food goes off. And the shelves with tinned food were untouched. Sheeple. I did stock up on a few cans of tuna and tinned vegies just in case the proverbial hit the fan.
You have to laugh - after the Premier / Lord Mayor asked for people to conserve water there was a spike in water consumption!! I guess it was people filling containers for a rainy day.... pardon the pun!!
