One of the problems with droughts is that, eventually, they end.

That is by definition, because “drought” is the dry part of the range of variability for a given place. When you’re in one, the marginal value of water (and therefore marginal cost you’re willing to pay) is high. When you come out of it? Not so much. But there is a permanence to big water infrastructure that is making this whole thing a bit of a mess right now in Queensland now that Australia’s big dry is gone:

French water giant Veolia is set to reap more than $30 million a year from Queensland taxpayers to babysit billions of dollars-worth of drought-busting infrastructure that is surplus to requirements and set to be switched off.

Oh yeah, and it’s the French.