Parliamentary record : Part I debates (11 November 1986)
Debates for 4th Assembly 1983 - 1987; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 4th Assembly 1983 - 1987
1986-11-11
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Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/220605
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/698931
DEBATES - Tuesday 11 November 1986 suggesting that the use of rainwater tanks was not a viable option because of the irregularity of rainfall. Of course, it was forgotten that the cattle stations in the area have utilised the .. Mr Dale: Were they drinking the water? Mr EDE: They do not have any groundwater. How can they drink it if they do not have it? There is no bore water. They were drinking out of a soak! Mr Speaker, would you please ask him to keep quiet? He is wasting my time. The fact is that the minister said that rainwater tanks were not viable. He said that in spite of the experience of cattle stations in these areas. He stated that an amount of $70 000 had been provided for the Water Resources Division to channel water to a point near the bank of Anningie Creek where a well would be constructed. Water would then be pumped to a storage facility. This was approaching the solution I had already proposed: the Mexican dam. I must congratulate the then Minister for Community Development, now Treasurer, on his assurance that my concerns were shared by the government which had 'made every effort to provide a source of drinking water for the Anningie people' By June 1986, I was starting to get worried again. I raised this with the Director of the Water Resources Division. I asked him if he could advise me what was g6ingoo. Mr Ron Freyling wrote back for the Director of the Water Resources Division on 9 July. He said: 'Site investigation work for the dam proposal is being carried out'. We were back to what I had talked about years before: a Mexican dam. Members interjecting. Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member has had to contend with quite a number of interjections over the last 5 or 10 minutes. I would ask all honourable members to treat him with a degree of courtesy, given the lateness of the hour. Mr EDE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. He stated that the report would form the basis of design and construction work on the dam and pumping system. I advised the community of that. I wrote in July to the minister, who is now the current Minister for Community Development, saying that I was hopeful that that would form the basis of an answer to the problems of Anningie. By September, I still had no answer although the previous letter had stated that the problem would be solved. In that letter, the previous Minister for Community Development stated: 'It is anticipated that construction of the well will be completed by the end of April r. Mr Speaker, by September, another person who is known very well to you, old Mr Presley, had gone blind because of the trachoma that he contracted from not having a decent water supply and - it is not a laughing matter - very understandably I became very angry and I wrote to the minister. I stated that so far nothing had been done and nothing could be .90ne on the Mexican dam that had been proposed in 1979, and had been agreed to by his predecessor, and that, in the meantime, the people go blind, the children are hospitalised with gastroenteritis, and the whole problem seems to be conveniently shuffled off to some group of experts in Sydney whilst nothing happens. 880