In 2012-13 SEQ consumed, on average, 255 litres of drinking water per person per day.
The Department of Energy and Water Supply (DEWS) has prepared an annual report on the current South East Queensland Water Strategy,387 which was developed by the former Queensland Water Commission. These reports review the SEQ water supply/demand balance, taking into account population growth, regional water consumption trends, water use efficiency measures and the operation of the SEQ bulk water supply system.
The South East Queensland Water Strategy will be superseded by a new water security program being developed by Seqwater, which is expected to be completed by mid-2015.388 This program will outline the arrangements and measures to facilitate the desired level of service objectives established by the Queensland Government. The program will include information about operating the bulk water supply system, potential future bulk water infrastructure needs and drought response. Seqwater will be responsible for reporting against the program annually, in a similar fashion to DEWS' annual reporting on the current Strategy.
The Queensland Water Commission389 has reported that water supply in SEQ is secure until at least 2027, under a conservative demand forecast. The nature and timing of infrastructure upgrades and other responses to ensure water supply security for SEQ is the subject of review and will be included in Seqwater's Water Security Program.
DEWS undertook a prefeasibility study390 which considered several options for increasing flood mitigation storage to reduce urban flood inundation in the Brisbane River floodplain, downstream of Wivenhoe Dam and in particular around Brisbane and Ipswich. The nine highest ranked flood mitigation development scenarios involve potential works at Wivenhoe Dam, with or without a dam on the upper Brisbane River near Linville. The DEWS report recommended further assessment of various combinations of dam safety upgrades for Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, raising of the Wivenhoe Dam and a new dam near Linville.
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387. Queensland Department of Energy and Water Supply (2013)
388. Queensland Department of Energy and Water Supply (2014)
389. Queensland Water Commission (2010)
390. Queensland Department of Energy and Water Supply (2014)