Water warning: council activates emergency.
The council this morning issued a boil water notice, warning residents in a large swathe of the city to avoid drinking water from the tap, or boil it, because of a water quality issue.
The affected area stretched across much of the north of the city, including the CBD, North Dunedin, Leith Valley, Woodhaugh and any area in the central city between the town belt and the harbour.
Dunedin Hospital has also activated its own EOC, and was relying on water tankers arranged by the council to supply fresh drinking water, council infrastructure and networks general manager Ruth Stokes said.
Eight other water tankers have been dispatched to other parts of the city, including to George St Normal School and Logan Park High School, both in the affected area, she said.
Council infrastructure and networks general manager Ruth Stokes told the Otago Daily Times it appeared untreated raw water released from the Ross Creek Reservoir on Sunday had been able to enter the city’s drinking water network.
Complaints were received Monday night and this morning, prompting an investigation which found an old pipe – no longer recorded on council plans – just below the reservoir.
The pipe connected to the city’s drinking supply, allowing raw water back into the network, she said.
The raw water came from a “protected catchment”, and would have been diluted as it mixed with the city’s treated drinking water supply, but the health risks were not yet known, she said.
By lunch time the shelves at Dunedin central’s Countdown were almost empty of bottled water.