Mike Brewster, TasWater CEO: ‘Correcting the record’

In an anonymous article recently posted in Tasmanian Times, the writer makes claims that are inaccurate or have already been fully discussed with the community. TasWater appreciates the value and role of anonymity but, as we cannot approach the writer directly, we would like to correct the record, and once again state the reasons for our decision on the future of the Waratah Dam.

It is natural that the people of any community hold a range of perspectives.

At the most basic level, that is why TasWater invests time, energy and resources into meeting with and talking with communities, especially those which are directly affected by the decisions we are obliged to make.

One of the realities of community engagement is that sometimes the interactions are civil; and sometimes they are not – especially when hard decisions have to be made. Our meetings with the Waratah community have been courteous, respectful and – from our perspective – useful in determining a way forward in what we acknowledge is a difficult situation.

The debate has at times been animated, but this shows how important it is to all involved. The dam adds value, amenity and enjoyment to the community and represents the heritage of the region. The fact that feelings run high simply emphasises the community’s fears around losing the dam.

We are not prepared to ignore or minimise those fears.

Similarly, we would expect the people of Waratah to not ignore nor minimise TasWater’s concerns for their community. There is a very real potential that the dam could fail and that people in the community could lose their property. The worst outcome conceivable is that someone in the community loses their life and we are left asking ourselves why we did not act.

As stated at the meeting the dam is not required for drinking water as the town is supplied by the run of the river, which means as the water corporation we do not require the dam and have obligations to ensure a prudent and efficient spend across all of Tasmania.

We invited the community and other key stakeholders to respond to an EOI process, which provided an opportunity to take over ownership and responsibility for the dam. Unfortunately, there were no formal expressions of interest received by the due date of 31 January 2018.

We are not claiming that decommissioning the dam is the ideal outcome and no decision has been reached that this is the outcome. We committed to an environmental assessment, a review of costs and depending on the outcome of our discussions; we will consider conducting another EOI which will include the costs associated with decommissioning the dam as part of the proposal.

Finally, I would like to address the anonymous writer’s disrespectful remarks aimed at one of our senior highly skilled and valued employees. As I said initially, given the difficult subject, our interactions with the people of Waratah have been civil and a credit to the community. In this one respect at least, it is clear that “Bill Smith” misrepresents the Waratah community.

The environmental assessment is underway. The next step is to lower the water in the dam to ensure safety in the short term. For more information on specific concerns or questions please visit
www.yoursay.taswater.com.au
Mike Brewster – TasWater CEO