EDITOR: Sophie Love of Ellenborough has written a Letter to Editor to voice her concern at the lack of water restrictions.
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Only four years since the horrific 2019 drought and fire; ask any farmer in the local area and we will tell you this year's dry is significantly worse.
The Ellenborough River stopped flowing for the first time in settled history in December 2019. It is far lower now than in winter 2019.
The ground is harder, drier, dustier.
Yet PMHC - again - have no water restrictions in place. Port Macquarie residents are wasting water we will need to fight fires. Have we learned nothing?
Farmers are still repairing infrastructure destroyed in successive natural disasters, yet not one overture has been made by PMHC to farmers in the catchment area with regard to harvesting water for future fire fighting, repairing riparian areas, flood debris clean-up to prevent pollution of the Hastings and mitigating damage in the next floods. Or better reporting of rising waters.
For instance, if there had been a system in place to report the 4m in 40 minute water rise on 21st March 2021, thousands of homes and vehicles could have been moved and saved.
While we, on the land, are rebuilding and planning mitigation on the assumption that what we survived in 2019 and 2021 was the tip of the iceberg, council and coastal areas act as if nothing happened and it's "situation normal".
It's as if Climate Change is only real inland.
What will it take before habits and behaviour, policy and future-proofing thinking takes place?
Sophie Love, Ellenborough
