pixiewink

This is all a bit scary....how could you live boiling your water for the next 12 years?

http://www.3news.co.nz/No-clean-gree...7/Default.aspx

Very concerned that they state nearly a million people have water not suitable for human consumption...and I don't live on the NI....

Snap Shot

Shhhhh.........don't tell the truth about New Zealand. The ex-pats and soon-to-be ex-pats don't like it.

BEVS

Actually, I do believe that people who are committed to this country are also concerned for the issues here, as can be seen by the comments in the linked article.

Dan Parker is a reporter for Campbell Live it seems. In fairness, that is a programme dedicated to stirring up controversy. Bit like a tabloid. It does nothing to solve anything though.

So. Despite the rather inflammatory thread title ( which I debated changing) maybe it is a discussion we can have.

The Green Party state this
This will cost money. Are we happy and prepared to pay for this? Either through our taxes or through our rates.

Much of what I read states that dairy farming has caused something of a shift. What do we, as New Zealanders , think can be done to limit the effect . Farmers need to be able to earn their living after all. Are you happy to subsidise the industry.

Water supplies to householders can be quite diverse. Households may use a bore or a well. A small communal tank. Their own water storage systems. That will come into the figures about water quality.

Link

It is all very well making such statements as per the thread title but who is prepared to get on out there and put their money where the moan is.


Mod note: The '100% Pure New Zealand' logo argument may be brought into this & maybe that is why this thread was started, although I rather hope not. However, please note, that I am taking this thread topic at it's face value. A thread about NZ water quality - let's keep it that way.
Thanks.

Charismatic

I think the story confuses two issues:
If the threat is biological they could chlorinate or do one of these new fangled UV or Ozone treatment things.

If the problem is related to Nitrate leaching they are out of luck, there is no overarching efforts to improve water quality.

pixiewink

Sorry this was a genuine post...with concerns over water safety after reading the TV3 news which I do daily...there was no intention of starting an "inflammatory thread" so feel free to amend or delete as you see fit...

Hazelnut

Interesting. As someone looking to move to NZ I've now crossed Tokomaru off the list of places to live, it doesn't matter how good it looks above ground I don't want to move to an area where I have to boil all the water before drinking it. I'm sure the funding argument is a lot more complex than that but it was truly a daft thing to say It does make me wonder though, how many areas in NZ have this problem?

On the flipside, although we don't have to boil our water in the UK, where my parents live in the south east the mains tap water is so heavy with chemicals to clean it up that none of us can drink it. They buy bottled water, with all it's environmental impact concerns of plastic bottles and shipping miles, and use that for cooking, drinking and brushing teeth. Whenever I visit I develop a rash from washing with the water and, at times, it smells almost no different to the local swimming pool water.

Many friends living in the south of the UK now have filters fitted to their domestic supply within the house as do the houses up here that draw water from their own ground wells. Could filters that screen out these bugs be fitted to each domestic house at an affordable (council subsidised) cost?

Charismatic

I don't think your post was inflammatory it's just a topical issue, how do we find a better balance between the export wealth created through agricultural commodities (which overall only contributes 4.7% to New Zealands GDP at the moment but make up about 38% of exports) against our need to protect the environment.

BEVS

Passing note: "Inflammatory thread title" . Not thread or post.

As you were.

Exactly.

What would be your solution Pixiwink?

You've lost me there.

Bo-Jangles

Same goes for our water in Auckland, it's heavily chlorinated, tastes vile and is often cloudy.

TommyLuck

*holds up a bottle of unfiltered tap water up to the light, takes a swig*

Disagree, on all counts.

Where abouts in Auckland are you?

TommyLuck

I stopped watching the video at 1:39, just after the video states that the boiled water notice is only precautionary.

In isolation a bit of a non-story then.

I say in isolation because clearly there are water ways in NZ that need serious work, far more serious than this, given this is only precautionary.

Hazelnut

Sorry Bev. I got the impression from the video that he was saying they were paying for play parks rather than sorting out the water issue. I couldn't quite believe that was the whole story and wondered if the recreation budget paid for sports facilities for children to use. Where I am the schools tend not to have their own sports complexes but use the council ones instead. If the same budget pays for public libraries that support access to information people need it becomes tricky. I just couldn't believe he was making it sound as simple as we need pretty parks and swings more than we need water you don't need to boil.

In the UK I think we controlled the nitrates and chemicals farmers could use but livestock farming in the UK is one of the worst paid, lowest income, hardest jobs I know unless you're one of those factory farming corporate places.

If I had to choose I think I'd go for less chemically laden water I had to boil rather than water so laden with chlorine that I couldn't drink or wash in it.

pixiewink

Why should we subsidise the industry, don't we do that already, through paying such ridiculous prices for dairy products.....or are the inflated prices all down to the retailer? Oh yeah and I pay water rates & a sum of money to Environment Canterbury which they lead me to believe goes toward a strategic water strategy....

Surely the farming industry, whether its dairy, sheep or cropping, has a "duty of care to dispose of its waste" in the same way as any business does..

For instance: there would be outcry if the local garage just tipped its waste oil into the waterways.....do they get subsidised? No, its their business and they are responsible for paying rid their waste...

Well that's what I think....agree or not....farming is the backbone of this country and one foot wrong and the place will go down the pan.....

About 2yrs ago there was a smallish outbreak of Giardia, personally I knew a whole family including a 2 month old going down with it......it became apparent there were several families in their small community that had contracted this terrible sickness...it is very debilitating and the mother of the baby told me that the GP's were sure it was coming from the water source....they live in a highly populated area of cows.....

I don't have any answers as how to resolve the issue but as I said earlier....Famers have a duty of care to dispose of there waste....

I see in the news today that there is a concern over a Botulism Alert for infant milks & sports drinks found in whey protein....

Catchafire

We use a water filter here in Marlborough. They are finding "trace" amounts of chemicals such as arsenic in the water table, which have been leeched out of vineyard posts.

It's up to an individual to take some responsibility for your own environment and the things you consume.

The botulism scare is another example. Another reason why breast is best.

Do you trust things you have done/grown/sourced for yourself or products delivered by a corporation, because you know.....they always have your best interest at heart.

TommyLuck

So true.

The world is putting on weight and getting less and less fit, largely because we're stuffing our faces with crap and doing things like drinking boozing too much, too often and smoking tobacco.

Point well made, sir.