Queenstown residents felt sick weeks before boil water notice announced
Queenstown locals reported feeling sick weeks before the council issued a boil water notice.
Residents were warned yesterday to boil their water or risk serious illness after National Public Health Service Southern confirmed cryptosporidium had caused a number of local illnesses.
The parasite has affected 15 people so far, the council said, and although there is still no confirmed link to the town’s water the notice is a proactive measure.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council said residents in the suburb of Fernhill had reported on social media feeling unwell.
The glorious irony of Queenstown, the wealthy playground of NZ who are such arseholes they can never manage to find accomodation for the plebs they use as cheap labour, is choking on poisoned water from the agricultural industry!
Oh the lols.
Where’s your hatred for 3 Waters now clowns?
Lack of water treatment highlights urgency of Three Waters reforms – mayor
Queenstown council failed to install protozoa barrier that would have averted crypto outbreak because of ‘tens of millions’ cost
Analysis: Queenstown Lakes council has less than 24 hours to issue a plan to deal with its cryptosporidiosis outbreak – New Zealand’s worst waterborne illness crisis since the fatal Havelock North contamination.
At 5.30pm last night, new Three Waters regulator Taumata Arowai slapped the council with the agency’s first compliance order. The stinging indictment was made public soon after 8pm.
The council is already directing Queenstown and Frankton residents to boil water for at least a minute. It must move quickly with a plan to engage the public, and to deal with the lack of a protozoa barrier at the Two Mile water treatment plant.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, cryptosporidiosis is not normally a serious disease in healthy people. But it can lead to a life-threatening illness for people with a weak immune system.
The lack of a protozoa barrier creates “a serious risk to public health”, says Taumata Arowai regulatory head Steve Taylor.
Residents such as small business operator Mallory Perigo are already taking their own steps by buying bottled water.
I was in Queenstown last week, for the finance leaders’ debate. Post-Covid, it’s full of tourists and humming. The cryptosporidiosis outbreak has put a dampener on that. This week, the council’s environmental health team has contacted about 170 food operators, mostly in person.
Mayor Glyn Lewers is to front a press conference later today, but he spoke with me this morning. He acknowledges the contamination probably began early this month, and the 17 cases confirmed thus far will be just the tip of the iceberg.
A compliance order is one of the strongest ‘remedial’ tools under the Water Services Act. Taumata Arowai can use them to address serious risks to public health, or contraventions of legislative requirements or drinking water safety plans.
The person who receives a compliance order must comply with it and meet the costs of doing so. Failure to comply with the order is an offence, with a maximum fine of $300,000 for a corporate body.
Queenstown’s compliance order will give council engineers legal reinforcement to act quickly and decisively. But this goes to the guts of why the Three Waters reforms are important, Lewers admits.
Choke on your water poisoned by the agricultural sector.
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Not many cows in the Queenstown area.Slack control will still be rampant under 3waters.
Delusion + ignorance = failure
A vote for National or Act is a vote for a catastrophic trainwreck….
You can’t say the warning bells haven’t been ringing loud and clear!
Some people never ever learn!!
David Seymour recommends that water infrastructure should stay with councils ( who unanimously agree something has to change) but when it comes to building consents he says ditch them because councils are useless. Gee what could go wrong. I am sure it’s just the consents, every thing else is sweet
Seymour wouldn’t have a clue about the Building Industry let alone Water Quality, he needs to stick to his knitting. IMHO>
What did Seymour do before he got into politics?
You’re a guesser
That’s why the government wanted decent infrastructure for water supplies so it could survive the mindless actions of the generally well-off who pollute with impunity as they don’t care about anyone else.
While it might not be cows there are other mammals & birds that can infect water supplies & the generally right-leaning councils along with the anti any government ideas mob who did not want to be told to improve water safety have received their reward.
There’s plenty of livestock around Lake Wakatipu
Or actually ducks.
Trevor, you can’t possibly know that it won’t work if it’s not tried. You sound like a conspiracy theorist or at least are determined for it to fail
I get your point MHK but I look at other government agencies and see how badly they are .OT, Polytechnic amalgamation, Health shake up, so why would 3 waters be better. All councils agree water needs more money but why do all areas both good and bad have to give up their asset so Labour can earn brownie points with Maori by giving them more control.
I could debate your points Trevor, however, when those cognitively challenged like the clown below( Bob the first) makes it very difficult to take right wing supporters seriously.
Good one Trevor. Of course control is positively utopian at present
It’s not every day the Labour Party presents a social conscience. If we had a National Government in charge they’d privatise the whole thing claiming poverty while hording all the good shit for there little friends and clicks.
It’s not that a tiny section of New Zealand’s clapped out water works broke the whole thing is trash don’t get hung up on the needy narraasitic ramblings of scum lord wankers.
It’s not cows causing it, there’s no or limited agriculture in QLDC’s water catchments.
Sheep…caused the water incident , I saw on the 1 news.
Maybe I am the only person that watch s 1 news.
Does it really matter if it’s a cow or a sheep? Can be a llama if you like. Another example of infrastructure that should have been in place but got kicked down the road
What goes around comes around he he he
Delusion + ignorance = failure
A vote for National or Act is a vote for a catastrophic trainwreck….
You can’t say the warning bells haven’t been ringing loud and clear!
Some people never ever learn!!
Yes, agree with Grant and would like to add how come people including our bias media haven’t asked how National is going to pay for the water infrastructure as most council don’t have the money and rates are already at an all-time high.
There is housing but too many mums and dads own them, yeah right!
Clearly the fault of white cis males.
no. just you.
Labour has had six years to sort this out with very little to show for it… I very much doubt another three years would make any difference.
You don’t turn a supertanker full of garbage, (left by National). around in just 6 years …..
Bovis, heavily polluted lakes and rivers, contaminated water supplies,
deregulated tourism industry…the list of clusterfucks is endless..
And yet they have propaganda machine, paid for by billionaires, telling everyone that they are the masters of the economy and how to run things when all the stats show that nothing could be further from the truth.
Only the irresponsible and the ignorant would want National/ Act in again..
Neil – what do you mean? Councils manage their own water supply systems. Many councils have vociferously opposed Labour’s Three Waters reform programme to upgrade and standardise water services. Some councils resorted to legal action to try to prevent change, dragging out any progress.
Labour tried to achieve cooperation and collaboration with councils, to benefit all communities, yet Labour MPs received vitriolic and racist attacks from people opposed to Three Waters.
It seems Queenstown Lakes District Council has cut corners regarding water supply infrastructure and maintenance to cut costs, with unfortunate consequences.
If Labour was so proud and positive about 3 Waters why is it not promoted as a plus to vote for them .Surprised how quite Mahuta has been so the memories of her involvement is forgotten.
They completely stuffed up the comms on it but it doesn’t make it a bad idea. Now they are too gutless to tell the ZB crowd that leaving it with councils will continue to see us go down the drain (a completely inadequate one of course). Your mates at National Trevor will end up going down the three waters path eventually. I guarantee it.
No Neil Labour have had more like three years as they wouldn’t have got 3 waters past the handbrake maestro Winstone.
Last time I visited Queenstown I didn’t notice any dairy farms or any other intensive agricultural enterprises around the lake, just the usual scattering of merinos and the odd beef cow grazing amongst the tussock and matagouri. Did notice a wide variety of water foul in and around the township and lake.
Oh gosh a foul Freudian slip again. Most strange.
Blackball has been on a boil water notice for most of the year,,,,every night in the Grey Star expensive $300 ads proclaiming this.
Blackball was built in the wrong place. Always had huge issues with fresh and waste water.
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