Word: toowoomba
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...good people of Toowoomba, Australia, a town of about 90,000 that sits atop the Great Dividing Range in southeast Queensland, have a branding problem on their hands. Residents of the nation's "Garden City" have not been able to use their sprinklers for nearly three years. Handheld hoses got the kibosh two years ago and, in 2006, watering the lawn by bucket was also banned...
...Toowoomba's residents are slowly running out of water, and have been for the past 15 years, along with nearly everyone else in this corner of eastern Australia. The region is undergoing its worst drought in over a century, and dead flower beds and brown football fields are the least of their worries. Toowoomba is the go-to city for a large rural area, including the nearby Darling Downs, fertile farm country until the rain went away and never came back. "We've been in water restriction in Toowoomba since 1992," says Dianne Thorley, the city's mayor of eight...
...luck could end for Toowoomba and the rest of southeast Queensland. Last month a group of scientists in the area got one step closer to launching what could be the world's most advanced experiment in rainmaking - or, as it's known in weather circles, cloud seeding. That's the practice of injecting clouds, usually with silver iodide "seeds," salt or dry ice, to make the clouds' water or ice particles bigger and yield more rain. The technique has been used in different parts of the world for more than 60 years - with varying success. But the slow ramp...
...Toowoomba Mayor Thorley sees it the same way. Like the state, her town has explored several options to get more water to people, from tapping into natural underground aquifers to pumping water some 700 m up the mountainside. "If we're seeing such weird weather - if we're going to have to pump water all over Australia via huge pipelines - wouldn't it be wiser to find another way?" says Thorley. "It would be worth...
...Whether or not the Toowoomba project brings rain, it is at least offering an oasis of hope for the people of southeast Queensland. Like the state, Toowoomba has explored several options to get more water to people, from tapping into natural underground aquifers to pumping water some 700 meters up the mountainside. Thorley estimates her city has invested 600 million Australian dollars in its water infrastructure, and thinks for the state to shell out $7.6 million on a cloud seeding experiment is a worthwhile risk. "If it proves to do something, then it has to have some benefit," she says...