A LITIGATION funder has found Queensland's Wivenhoe dam was negligently operated during the 2011 floods.
IMF Australia said its own investigations have determined the dam wasn't operated competently, and as a direct result downstream properties suffered unnecessary flooding.
Executive director John Walker said he was extremely confident a class action by flood victims will go ahead.
IMF Australia says its investigations have determined the dam wasn't operated to the standard expected of a reasonably "competent dam operator in all of the circumstances".
It says independent US experts engaged to carry out the investigation have identified two key failures:
a failure to use rainfall forecasts in making decisions about (dam) operating strategies; and
a failure to preserve a reasonable amount of Wivenhoe's storage capacity to provide optimum protection of urbanised areas from inundation.
Mr Walker said the investigation's findings mark the end of the due diligence process for the class action being pursued by the law firm Maurice Blackburn.
He said the next stage is to formally establish the level of loss among affected residents, and if there's sufficient interest to go ahead with the class action.
Mr Walker said 2000 flood victims are already on board, and 2000 others have expressed an interest.
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21.1.13
