6pm Monday May 26th Cyber Café, Kuranda

Have a talk with any elders in the area and you will hear stories of beautiful clean water of the Barron River – ‘in the olden days’…

The river has been on quite a journey since then, with erosion from land-clearing for chemical agriculture including tobacco farming, which has left long-lasting heavy metal contaminants in riverside soils, mining, run-off from live-stock, house-hold and industrial waste, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers, feral animals etc etc.

• What is the current state of the water in the Barron River catchment and our drinking water?
• How does the water quality change with rainfall and drier times?
• What are the health problems that have been reported in relation to the water?
• What sort of tests are done for what sort of chemicals and pollutants?
• What is being done at the moment to clean up the whole of the Barron River catchment?
• What funds/programs/resources are available to access to do this?
• What are the cutting-edge environmentally responsible methods used around the world for
• cleaning water catchments?

Join Jenny Jensen to discuss these and other water issues from 6pm on the 26th of May 2014

Photograph of the Barron River by Jon Gleu