End in sight for water problems

water supply. Tests had also found bacterial infections including salmonella and protozoic diseases in the water.

The $4.4m water treatment plant was announced in 2015 and was partially funded by the Ministry of Health, which contributed $1m.

Awatere Seddon Water Group member Liz Cleaver said it had been hard to get a stable water supply in Seddon, but the new plant was ‘‘brilliant’’.

She said people were tired of getting sick and having rashes from the water. Residents who wanted safe water had to boil their own or go to the communal pump owned by Seddon School.

School principal Tania Pringle said the council had maintained the pump for the entire time she had been there, about 10 years, and there was a ‘‘constant stream of people’’ using it.

Seddon’s water was part of the Awatere water supply scheme, which sourced water from the Black Birch Stream. Because the water came directly from the stream, heavy rain could make the water cloudy and the system could not cope with the runoff.

Water rates for residents of Seddon were expected to increase by $240 a year while other ratepayers would pay an extra $8. Chickens and roosters are being dumped on roadsides around New Zealand by poultry owners too gutless to kill birds that no longer lay or they can’t keep.

The dumping of the birds has angered animal lovers who say it is cruel.

Nelson Poultry Association committee member Karen Smith said poultry dumping was cowardly. ‘‘If you start a life you should be able to end it as well,’’ she said. ‘‘Why didn’t the owners just bop them off? Why didn’t they at least cull them or offer them to somebody?’’

The chickens left to fend for themselves in the wild would be ‘‘fairly well predated on’’ by hawks, ferrets, stoats, rats and wild cats. Rather than dumping them there were ‘‘oodles’’ of people who could find homes for the birds, including poultry groups, she said.

Chickens no longer producing eggs and unwanted roosters were being dumped all over the country, Smith said.

‘‘On the poultry Facebook pages, you quite often get comments around that.’’

It is an offence under the animal welfare act to release an animal without making sure it can fend for itself.

Some of the hotspots for chicken dumping in the region include the Whangamoa Saddle, the Takaka Hill and in the Upper Moutere area.

The good news for the abandoned poultry is that plenty of locals enjoyed picking up the strays. ‘‘People often stop if they’ve got a chance and grab them if they can.’’

Smith said she had bought chickens off a woman who ‘‘did exactly that on Upper Moutere Hill".

Many unwanted chickens and roosters are taken to the SPCA.

Nelson SPCA employee Nicola Blasdale said it often had roosters dropped of which were ‘‘almost certainly dumped’’.

‘‘We quite often have them brought in here as strays by concerned members of the public. We do struggle to find homes for them because there’s only a certain number of people out there that want a rooster.’’

Wairarapa Poultry & Pigeon Club secretary Yvonne Harvey said one woman in Masterton took on unwanted roosters.

‘‘She will take anyone and everyone’s. She homes what she can and the rest get eaten.’’

Despite this initiative, Harvey said dumping was ‘‘definitely happening".

Hastings Poultry and Pigeon Association secretary Judi Mcneur said people needed to be educated about the responsibility of chickens.

‘‘Chooks will not lay for ever and ever. Know that you make a commitment on an animal and don’t treat them as disposable.’’