FERNANDO and Nicole da Silva bought their Capalaba property in December 2021.
But almost immediately, they realised something wasn’t right with the water.
“Straight away, we realised – hang on, the water pressure is really low,” Fernando said.
“And then we became aware, on top of that… every now and then – the water just cuts off.”
The dropouts often last around 30 seconds, which may sound minor – unless you’re mid-shower.
“You’re just standing there wet, thinking, ‘Is it coming back on? Come on, come on’,” Fernando said.
It started happening once a day, usually in the evening, but it’s since become worse.
“Now it can happen two or three times a day,” he said.
They repeatedly reported the issue to Redland City Council, but for years were told it wasn’t a widespread problem – until Councillor Jason Colley investigated.
“Nicole contacted me, and within a couple of weeks someone else in the area told me they had the same issue,” Cr Colley said.
“I did a letterbox drop to 400 residents in the area, asking them to contact me if they were experiencing the same thing.
“I had 24 people respond and say they were.”
Cr Colley said Council initially treated the cases as unrelated.
“What Council said was that these were all isolated incidents, so they hadn’t linked them,” he said.
“I submitted all the complaints as one single issue and asked them to investigate it that way.
“That’s when they installed loggers to monitor pressure and cutoffs, and they’ve been liaising with SEQ Water ever since.”
In frustration, Fernando – a qualified engineer – decided to replace their water line himself.
“We replaced the line from the front to the house ourselves – had a machine here for three days at our own expense, but it made no difference,” he said.
He thought an old 19mm copper pipe might have been blocked, so they upgraded to a 25mm line with no improvement.
Nicole said the lack of water pressure affected all aspects of daily life.
“I have two bathtubs – never been able to fill one,” she said. “Not even to bathe the grandkids.”
Fernando said Council’s response evolved slowly.
“Their stance shifted from ‘we’ve never heard of this’ to ‘it’s your problem’ to finally, ‘Oh yes, it’s SEQ Water, and we’re now working with them’,” he said.
According to Cr Colley, the most recent advice from SEQ Water is that the issue may be caused by air trapped in the pipe network.
“They need to progressively test air valves across the network,” he said.
“They’ve acknowledged the issue and taken responsibility. But there’s no resolution yet.”
SEQ Water says it is working closely with Redland City Council to investigate intermittent water pressure issues affecting some residents.
“This is a complex matter involving multiple site inspections across both the Seqwater and Redlands water networks, including accessing pipes beneath roads, to identify the root cause of the issue,” a spokesperson said.
“Our crews are cooperating closely as we methodically check our networks, with Seqwater to inspect a bulk water pipe and valves underneath School Rd on Friday, 18 July.
“Traffic control arrangements will be in place while we undertake this important investigation work.
“Our immediate priority, working with Council, is to find the cause and resolve the issue. Once we’ve completed the assessments of our network, we’ll be in a better position to determine next steps with customers.”
