Canterbury worst region for faecal contamination in water supplies

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Source: Green Party – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Canterbury worst region for faecal contamination in water supplies



Some communities have faeces in their drinking water and yet the Government has limited their ability to clean up their water supplies.

More people in Canterbury take drinking water from supplies which have issues with faecal contamination than anywhere else in New Zealand the Ministry of Health’s recently released Annual Report on Drinking-Water in New Zealand shows, the Green Party said today.

The report shows that 31 water supplies which serve 19,010 people in Canterbury had excessive Escherichia coli (E.coli) breaches the Green Party said today. E.coli is an indicator of faecal contamination. Drinking water schemes which supply 19,010 people had issues with E.coli contamination in Canterbury; compared to 15,314 in Waikato, 13,063 in Hawke’s Bay and 12,179 in Otago.

“Canterbury is the worst region in New Zealand in terms of the number of people taking water from water supply schemes with excessive E coli breaches,” Green Party water spokesperson Eugenie Sage said.

“Nationally 92,000 people were served by supplies with excessive numbers of E. coli in the 2011/12 year (the most recent data) compared to 72,000 in 2009/10.

“The report that many New Zealander’s right to clean, safe drinking water is being denied. Nationally 2.4 per cent (92,000 people) of the reported population have water supplies with excessive numbers of E.coli transgressions.

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“The report gives statistics about microbiological and protozoal compliance of registered drinking water supplies. It shows that drinking water non-compliance is generally located in towns with populations of less than 5,000 people.

“The Government has cut financial support to help communities provide adequate treatment of their drinking water.

“The most cost effective way to ensure good water is to protect the source of our water. When that is not an option the Government needs to help with the capital cost of treatment.

“When over half of our lowland rivers, the sources of drinking water for many communities, are classed as unsafe for swimming the Government needs to be investing more money into helping small communities supply clean, safe drinking water, not less.

“Some communities have faeces in their drinking water and yet the Government has limited their ability to clean up their water supplies.

“Agriculture intensification and an expansion of intensive dairying will make it harder for rural communities to access clean, safe drinking water and impose additional water treatment costs.

“It was hypocritical of Government in 2010 to cut funding by $18 million to the Capital Assistance Programme which aims to support small communities of under 5,000 people to improve drinking water quality, while encouraging more dairying which increases the sources of faecal contamination,” Ms Sage said.

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