For the past nine months, the First Nations community of Cherbourg in Queensland has had to boil water to make it safe to drink. The state government has promised to fund a new water treatment plant, but resident have little confidence it will fix the problem.
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00:00Just three hours drive from Brisbane, Sherburgh's 1,200 residents have substandard access to drinking water, according to the local council.
00:09It's probably in the last 20, 25 years that we haven't been making a high enough quality of water to be the standard with the rest of Queensland.
00:18The locals need to boil the town water to make it safe, due to a failing water treatment plant.
00:23The 70-year-old system can't cope with heavy rains, leading to a muddy water supply and E. coli outbreaks.
00:29Sort of towards the end of spring, down into the summer time, we get our big storms and as operators, that's a nightmare for us.
00:36The most recent boil water alert lasted nine months, but residents caring for the most vulnerable say they haven't used the town water for decades.
00:44It's just the health and wellbeing of the children and safety for our children, keeping them healthy.
00:48We know that it can cause diarrhoea or gastro and rotavirus.
00:55The childcare centre pays around $600 per month out of its operational budget for bottled water.
01:00If it was a non-indigenous community, I think the problem would be solved.
01:04And you know, sometimes we feel like, why do we have to wait and wait and wait?
01:10$26 million in state and federal funding has now been committed to help fix the problem.
01:16With the upgraded infrastructure, we strongly believe that with my team, that we can manage the, well, we must provide clean water to our community.
01:24While the Cherbourg water plant upgrade isn't an election promise, the state government says it will secure a safer source of water for the community
01:31and should put an end to residents needing to frequently boil their own water.
01:35But some residents aren't so sure.
01:37They're not confident, but we've got to be optimistic too and hoping that hopefully they'll do it right this time.