The small Lama Lama community in far north Queensland has received critical funding to help facilitate a reliable water supply after generations of challenges, one of a host of remote communities across the state to soon benefit from cleaner access.
The Yaru Foundation's $40,000 donation will fund the essential project - delivered in collaboration with the Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and the Lama Lama Land Trust (LLLT) for the community in Port Stewart – focused on providing clean, safe, and reliable drinking water.
Access to a reliable water source has long been a pressing challenge for the Lama Lama people, who have lived on their ancestral lands for generations but suffer fluctuations in water availability and unsafe contamination with heavy metals in surface water during seasonal changes.
During the dry season, the Lama Lama population can double to nearly 100 people, compounding the demand for clean drinking water and hindering the community's ability to thrive on Country.
YAC cultural officer Elaine Liddy said the community wanted and needed better infrastructure.
"We want to have a better, healthy, growing community," she said.
"And the main thing is our water source, it has to be better, with good water, like in the city."
The funds would help build a rainwater capture, storage, and filtration system, and primarily leverage water supply during the wet season from a central building's rooftop, storing it in a high-volume, ground-level tank.
Water will then be filtered and delivered via a solar-powered pump to the community, and ensured constant access to safe water, even during periods of no electricity.
Yaru Foundation's donation would cover material costs for the system's pump, solar power supply, and filtration unit – all core components in a remote and challenging environment.
The project was not just engineering based, with some Lama Lama locals to be trained in water quality testing and system maintenance to ensure long-term sustainability of the system.
Yaru Foundation director Tessa Martin said initiatives such as the Lama Lama water project were essential investments that went beyond provision of infrastructure.
"For Yaru, it's about empowering communities to thrive on their land," she said.
"This project addresses immediate needs and also contributes to a sustainable future for the Lama Lama people and their connection to Country."
The safe drinking water project announcement followed a raft of water infrastructure improvements planned in 11 other remote communities in Queensland.
$62 million funding from the Federal, Queensland and local governments will fix deteriorating and failing drinking water systems in Wujal Wujal, Dajarra, Cherbourg, Mornington Island, Doomadgee, Bamaga, Seisia, New Mapoon, Umagico, Injinoo and Birdsville.
The $31.3m in federal funding is via its National Water Grid Fund, including $29.3m from the $150m the government has earmarked for projects in remote and regional First Nations communities, some of which are shovel ready.
