Sustainable Glenorchy says the Queenstown Lakes District Council has ”completely overreacted” to a government report into a North Island water contamination event last year, and chlorinating the district’s water supply this summer is ”overkill”.
It followed stage two of the Havelock North drinking water inquiry, which called for a major overhaul of water supplies and strongly recommended mandatory treatment.
Forty-five were admitted to hospital and it was possible the outbreak contributed to three deaths.
However, Sustainable Glenorchy spokeswoman Nikki Gladding said the council had not consulted the community, the item was not included in the agenda for today’s council meeting, yet it had decided to chlorinate the system ”for no reason”.
”A good first step would be to protect the bores.”
Ms Gladding said other than protozoa, the community’s water supply was compliant – and chlorination would not solve that issue.
She submitted filtration and UV treatment, as well as ”prevention strategies” such as moving fences were alternative ways of treating water without adding chlorine.
While she understood the council had to take all practicable and reasonable steps to comply with Drinking Water Standards, which included monitoring of drinking water and implementing a water safety plan, a comprehensive plan had been prepared for the town and was being implemented.
”We believe this sudden deviation to chlorinate the water supplies in all the small communities in the Queenstown Lakes district is overkill due to the contamination of the Havelock North water supply and the subsequent outcome.
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