News
After decades of being exposed to potentially fatal bore water, residents in the South Australian outback town of Oodnadatta are finally set to have access to clean drinking water as part of a $41 million State Government pledge.
News
South Australian taxpayers have been left to foot a “huge” bill to fix corroded infrastructure in Oodnadatta, while some of the town’s elderly Aboriginal residents continue to drink the potential fatal bore water supplied to houses, the outback community’s council claims.
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Residents of the outback town of Oodnadatta are “suffering in conditions that we wouldn’t expect anyone in our community to live with day to day” due to their poor water quality, the state’s peak Aboriginal health group says.
The State Government will examine water supply issues facing remote South Australian communities, after the independent regulator flagged it would reject SA Water’s proposal to supply them with safe drinking water.
An SA Water proposal to make its customers across the state pay what is estimated to cost up to $200 million to provide safe drinking water to remote communities “cannot be justified”, an independent committee has found, as one outback town remains exposed to potentially fatal bore water.
It is one of the most arid places in South Australia, but for decades the outback town of Oodnadatta has been without safe drinking water, prompting health concerns and leaving locals furious about what they claim is a fundamental breach of human rights.
South Australian youth advocates have called on the state’s political leaders to address what they describe as a serious lack of public transport in regional and remote areas.
