A disaster waiting to happen

Well, the monsoon trough has moved down, the wet season is here, we've had some moderate rain and what do we have? Floods, all over town.
I went down to Gordonvale last weekend to listen to and commiserate with the people in Riverstone Road who had a torrent of water go throught their houses; homes which had never flooded previously.
Some of the people in Gordonvale have long memories. They remember the town flooding after Pyramid Estate was first built resulting in the building of the Hemmings Creek drain. They recall how subsequent developers have been allowed to use the drain for excess runoff for which it was not designed. They know that CEC are continuing development from the Pyramid Estate through Meringa and on the old bullock paddock with drainage going into creeks which flow directly into the heart of the 'old' town.
They tell of the saga of the Johnson Park drain back in Mulgrave Shire times when Campbell street flooded when the high tide backed up Mackeys creek. They tell of how the previous and current councils have ignored the drainage problems of new development in favour of developers.
They reckon many of these drainage plans are drawn up by engineers in southern centres who have no idea of the wet season in this area and the amount of run-off or how the creeks are affected by tidal rise. They think that developers consider the costs to do the job properly are too high even though they know the consequences. They'll be long gone when the problems occur.
The residents are worried and they have a right to be. We haven't had a decent wet season in years, the developers have continued building at a rapid rate and we are a disaster waiting to happen.
We have got to pause for a bit, reflect upon the increased turbulent weather that we know will be a consequence of global warning (on which Kevin Byrne, alone, thinks the jury is still out).
We have to plan better, take account of local knowledge, stop trying to make creeks flow in the opposite direction and respect that we live in the tropics and not a suburb in Sydney or Melbourne.
At council meetings other councillors often roll their eyes when Cr Jeff Pezzuti wants to ask questions about drainage again and again. Jeff asks those questions because he knows the land and he knows the power of the water.
The developers have not been made accountable in the way they should have been and the ratepayers of Cairns are going to be paying for their mistakes for years to come.