Cherbourg residents have been asked to boil their tap water until further notice after the town has grappled with dirty and turbid water for the past four days.
The Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council issued a precautionary town-wide ‘boil water’ alert on 2:13pm, Thursday 15 January.
All residents of the Burnett First Nations community have been asked to boil water used for drinking, oral- and infant hygiene and food preparation before consumption.
According to council, unboiled water can still be used for personal hygiene by adults, laundry and dishwashing, and in toilets.
The alert comes as Cherbourg is on its fourth day of dealing with a resurgence of dirty and cloudy tap water, triggered by a malfunction of the backwash system at the town’s ageing water treatment plant.
Council first acknowledged the issue on Monday, 12 January stating its crews were working to resolve the malfunction as well as flushing the town’s pipe network to discharge any affected water.
On 14 January CASC reported its crews had taken samples to determine if the tap water was still meeting chlorination and turbidity standards.
Cherbourg last experienced a ‘boil water’ alert in mid-2024, with the town’s residents having had to treat their tap water for nine months straight as a result of an E. coli infection followed by low chlorine levels.
In October 2024 Cherbourg’s council announced the town was set to receive a new $26 million water treatment plant jointly funded by the state and federal governments, which will replace the community’s 60-year-old existing structure.
The Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council will publish updates on the latest ‘boil water’ alert via its Facebook page and website as well as on Cherbourg Radio, 94.1FM.
