Yoogali during the March floods.
YOOGALI residents have demanded council install a pump in their main street – more than 20 years after it was first promised.
In 1990, council approved a pump to be placed at the bottom of Edon Street to prevent flooding that occurred during heavy rain.
The equipment was never installed.
At a town meeting on Thursday night, residents claimed the pump would have saved many homes from being damaged in the March floods.
“The main thing the pump would have done is saved a lot of problems for businesses in the main street, which are always the first to go when there’s a bit of rain,” resident Michael Fisher said.
“The street fills up with water reasonably quickly – we need something in place to get it out of there straight away.
“I don’t think it would have prevented the March floods, simply because of the volume of water that was coming down, but it would have made a huge difference to the houses behind Edon Street.”
Minor flooding is usually caused by rainwater draining down from Collina and Mr Fisher said it had become worse as the area developed.
If the pump had been installed, it would have kicked into action as soon as the volume of water flowing down Main Drain J became too much for its infrastructure to handle.
Griffith mayor John Dal Broi – who was also the city’s leader in 1990 – was at the town meeting and admitted he did not know the pump had never been installed.
“I remember it being approved, so I’d like to know why it wasn’t done and then I intend to progress it further,” Cr Dal Broi said.
“In the same way that we’re doing something for Yenda, we need to do something for the residents of Yoogali.
“I will follow this up vigorously – I am as keen as they are to have these questions answered.”
More than 50 Yoogali residents, six councillors and several council staff members attended the meeting.
A committee was formed to spearhead the campaign to solve the village’s drainage problems.
Mr Fisher said the installation of the long-awaited pump would be the committee’s first objective.