The anger has spread from the Mary Valley and now embraces the entire Sunshine Coast.

The reality of what some may have been seen at first as a problem to the north of us is now well and truly impacting across the entire region.

A swathe of easement, 40 metres wide, is being cleared to accommodate a 1.2 metre diameter pipe to carry our water at great expense to provide water security elsewhere.

As a plan for the future, it is an expensive folly. Coupled with the proposed construction of the Traveston Crossing dam we are witnessing the trashing of property rights and lives to create an entity that will eventually be fully privatised and already bears the mark of that fate.

Whoever eventually gets control of south-east Queensland’s water supply will not be sharing any dividend with those whose rights were trashed in the process.

People like Jo Moore at Peachester and Rodger Shepherd at Landsborough who have been introduced to readers of this publication in recent days, tell stories of how they have been treated that defy the spin of the liaison officers and communication companies that now litter the ground from Glasshouse to Traveston.

The government hides behind the convoluted structure it has set up to manage water into the future.

No elected official answers the distress of a single mother trying to get on with her life who can’t sell a property that has been turned into a moonscape.

No elected official explains to a 65-year-old retiree why a mountain of dirt at his back door hasn’t been shifted.

That responsibility falls to LinkWater, the trading name for the Queensland Bulk Water Transport Authority, which is just one of potentially 15 separate companies, the creation of which will somehow make water supply and distribution more secure and simpler than leaving it in the hands of local authorities to manage their own affairs.

In the hierarchy of the South East Queensland Water Grid, LinkWater sits below the Queensland Bulk Water Supply Authority, in charge of catchments, dams and treatment and the Manufactured Water Entity which controls purified recycled water and desalinated water.

No doubt sexy names for the pair of them are being worked out as the bulldozers - employed by construction companies Northern Network Alliance with its catchy “innovative and sustainable water solutions” slogan - plough through people’s garden beds.

After LinkWater in our wonderful new Waterworld comes the water grid manager who will oversee the operation of the water grid and who will be responsible for the purchase of water from those above it and the sale to those below.

A distribution entity – that’s where local authorities come in – is responsible for water reticulation and waste water management. Then potentially 10 retailers will get to set a price and face the public.

This structure and dinosaur-like approach to the issues of sustainability that will, with climate change, increasingly confront us gives both government and bureaucracy the illusion that the unsustainable practices of the past can be continued indefinitely.

And it’s not just water. The rolling out of Powerlink’s energy grid is not only trampling all over the property rights of individuals and creating more visual offence than any graffiti artist could ever aspire to, but it is also tying us to the non-renewable supply of coal-fired power stations.

A group of Eumundi and Eerwah Vale residents yesterday took their vision for a more decentralised approach to power supply and delivery to Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Smith. It is unlikely they received a sympathetic ear.

His answer to a question I put recently about alternatives to coal-fired power made it abundantly clear that decentralisation of power supply is not an option.

This was part of Mr Smith’s response: “Make no mistake, coal will still continue to play a role in the global electricity mix. Our key challenge is to use it in a responsible and environmentally sustainable way.

"That’s why we’re injecting $10 million into an oxy-fuel project being developed by CS Energy near Biloela in Central Queensland.

"The project involves using a conventional power station and burning the coal in pure oxygen – which makes it easier to capture the carbon dioxide. It’s expected to demonstrate that coal-fired power stations can be retro-fitted with this technology to achieve deep cuts to carbon emissions. That’s important in a state with more than 32 billion tonnes of high-quality, low-cost, easily-accessible, black coal.

"It’s being funded by the Rudd Labor Government, the Bligh Government through CS Energy, and our partners - the Australian Coal Association’s Coal 21 Fund, Xstrata, Schlumberger, the Japanese Government and Japanese participants – JPower, Mitsui & Co. and IHI Corporation."

Stand aside, they’re coming through.