The State Government has announced a cut to water bills for households across the southeast, including here on the Gold Coast.
Water will be released from The Wivenhoe Dam to reduce it from 90% to 80% ahead of an anticipated wet summer, giving two weeks’ worth of water bill relief.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the news this morning during State Parliament, confirming it’ll greatly benefit many people.
“The good news for families and households is that this will result in a significant cost of living reduction,” Premier Palaszczuk says.
“We will reduce water bills for all southeast Queensland households connected to the SEQ Water grid to the equivalent of two weeks worth of free water,
“That will apply to approximately 1.38 million homes.”
The reduction will mean around a $55 discount on water bills.
Seqwater will begin releasing water this Saturday, October 16 and will run for two weeks.
The Premier has labelled it an “early move to prepare for the worst case scenario” ahead of the storm season and based on advice from the Bureau of Meteorology.
“It is being done safely and in a controlled manner and is being done to ensure we are on the front foot after the crucial advice,”
“It will involve the proposed release of 116,000 mega litres of water from the dam to improve flood mitigation capacity.”
Families and residents are being encouraged to “make the most of this rare opportunity” by washing down the house and driveway, cleaning out gutters and washing cars and animals.
The discount will apply to water bills before December, and will be fully rolled out by March 2023.
