The quest to find Queensland's best
Date: 13-Sep-2016
The best tap water from across Queensland will go head to head in a blind taste-off on Wednesday 14 September as part of the 2016 Ixom Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test.
The event is hosted in conjunction with the Queensland Water Directorate’s third annual Innovation Forum and will take place between 10.30 and 11.45 am at the Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve, 408-492 Mount Crosby Rd, Chuwar.
For the first time, around 60 forum delegates will participate in a blind taste off of water samples from across Queensland, after which a panel of water experts will select the winner from the top five entries. Participants use a scientifically proven water wheel to judge the entries by colour, odour and taste.
qldwater CEO Dave Cameron said that while the competition had been running for several years, it will be the first time so many samples will be trialled at once.
We change things around a bit each year and instead of a number of regional finals staggered across various events, we are doing it all in one hit this year.
It’s going to create some interesting logistical challenges as we still aren’t exactly sure of how many entries to expect, but my money’s on 15-20 overall ranging from the Gold Coast in the south to Hinchinbrook in the north and the Central Highlands out west.
There will be a lot of diversity, including a sample from the desalination plant at Tugun, along with some relatively ‘untouched’ supplies.
That being said, things can get a bit ‘samey’ for the inexperienced, so we have recruited some real experts including wine tasters and water quality gurus to help with the final assessment.
This year the taste test coincides with Imagine A Day Without Water celebrating this precious resource.
The taste test is about more than just how good the water tastes: it is a way to help inform the community about how much effort goes into providing quality drinking water – an essential, sustainable service provided 24/7 by the staff of our local water utilities.
ABOUT THE QUEENSLAND WATER INDUSTRY
- There are 75 local government drinking water service providers in regional Queensland and over 400 community water supplies.
- Queensland has more people living in outer regional areas than any other state in Australia, and most of this dispersed population rely on local government to provide water and sewerage services.
- Not surprisingly, many of the communities served are small. In fact two thirds of the potable supplies are for towns with fewer than 1000 residents. Half service fewer than 500 people.