Calls for a regulator to prosecute sewage spills into Waitemata Harbour.
Several groups are banding together under the Stop Auckland Sewage Overflows Coalition to reverse the city’s shame of more than one million litres of wastewater and raw sewage pouring into the harbour every year.
Water pollution is a buried problem which is now surfacing all over the city There are concerns Auckland Council is skimping on stormwater and wastewater problems and matters will get worse with at least 800 new homes due to be built in the next three years in the inner city suburbs.
The society wants New Zealand to follow the United States, UK and Canada and create a Government-funded regulator with coercive powers.
It wants the regulator to be independent of Auckland Council, which is the provider and regulator of water services.
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The coalition said the days of the former Auckland Regional Council "looking over the shoulder" of the separate councils on water management had been replaced with Auckland Council’s Unitary Plan appearing to permit stormwater overflows.
It was not acceptable for the policing on a national matter such as water to be left to Auckland Council’s stormwater unit, known as Healthy Waters, the submission said.
What is the Stop Auckland Sewage Overflows Coalition?
About 14 community and environmental groups from Mission Bay to Whau Creek gave initial support for the initiative.