WANGARATTA Council candidate Julian Fidge has renewed calls for increased capacity of Lake Buffalo and Lake William Hovell to prevent repeated flooding in the city.
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Flood-prone areas of Wangaratta, including Apex Park and Painters Island caravan park, are again feeling the effects of recent rains.
The swollen Ovens River will take more than a week to return to normal levels provided there is no further heavy rainfall and the city hopes there is no repeat of the September 2010 floods which forced the levee bank to leak.
But Dr Fidge said Wangaratta’s constant flooding threat could be fixed by making the Buffalo and William Hovell storages larger.
If re-elected, he will call on other councillors to engage a consultant to prepare an up-to-date report on the viability of building larger dams.
“Dams aren’t a new concept,” Dr Fidge said.
“(National Party leader) Barnaby Joyce has said there is money available to borrow, but it’s not enough.
“You need more financial investment from the federal government and more intent from the state government.
“But quite frankly Cathy McGowan and Tim McCurdy are both sitting on their hands.”
A decade-long drought leading up to the 2010 floods exposed flaws in the Wangaratta levee system.
The federal government has made a $2.5 billion commitment to building water infrastructure into the future.
Chaffey Dam in Mr Joyce’s New England electorate has increased to a permanent storage capacity to 100 gigalitres.
Lake Buffalo’s present capacity is 23,340 megalitres and Lake William Hovell is 13,500 megalitres.
“I’m not going to say you are going to stop all floods forever,” Dr Fidge said.
“But you would certainly mitigate against the frequency and severity of the flooding.”
Wangaratta Council was approached for an update on the levee bank upgrade by The Border Mail but didn’t provide comment.
Meanwhile, Lake Hume’s level has seen a dramatic increase in the last three months.
After a low of 18.6 per cent in April, the lake's present level is 61.09 per cent with a rise of 8.27 per cent in the past week.