According to D Roddan from Dalby in a letter to the editor in Queensland Country Life, (24/05/2007, p.20), a source of water in southern Queensland were the gas and coal fields having evaporation ponds, of about 200ha which could be used as giant stills, using the power of the sun and collecting the condensation from under the covers without any electricity being used to pump the water to where you want it.
Getting water from ‘roofs’: Another method of assisting in the supply of water would be the creation of ‘roofs’, or scaled areas in the catchment area of our dams.
100pc runoff even in drought: Ordinary timbered country only had about one percent runoff, and that would only start after a heavy downpour of 100mm-150mm of rain. A roof, on the other hand, would have an almost total runoff and even in light falls of 10mm-20mm or more under drought.
90,000L annually under 700mm rainfall: About 20ha of carefully-graded contoured and sealed, would equal the runoff from about 2000ha and could use some of the poorest least productive land. This, of course, would lead to households having their own water tanks. In a 700mm rainfall area, an average-sized roof would yield 90,000 litres a year.
Queensland Country Life, 24/5/2007, p. 20
