Drinking water alert in Dunedin after supply contaminated

Many Dunedin residents must continue boiling tap water for four days after ‘‘raw’’, untreated water entered the public water supply.

All residents and businesses in the Central Business District, North Dunedin, Leith Valley, Woodhaugh and the Warehouse Precinct were advised to boil all drinking water.

The Southern District Health Board has set up an emergency operations centre.

Water tankers were sent to various locations. People were advised to take their own containers – and not rinse them using tap water.

The Dunedin City Council first received complaints from the North East Valley student area about discoloured tap water yesterday morning.

Staff found stored, untreated water had entered the treated water supply. It was understood the ‘‘raw water’’ came from the Ross Creek Reservoir.

‘‘We thought it was a local issue at first, but it soon became clear it was a much wider issue,’’ council spokesman Graham McKerracher said.

‘‘The issue for us is what exactly is in that raw water, normally it would be treated.’’

Samples had been sent away for lab testing, which would take 24 hours.

More than 1000 people posted questions on the Dunedin City Council Facebook page, some upset the council initially only advised of a water quality issue without information about potential causes or health risks.

At least two posted that they discovered murky water on Monday. One woman posted she was advised to run the tap until it became clear.

One man commented: ‘‘This would’ve been good to know about three hours ago – before we drank a couple of bottles of water.’’

McKerracher said five teams opened hydrants across the affected area to flush the system. The pipes were clear of contaminated water by about 3pm yesterday.

‘‘Avoid drinking water from the public water system, but if you must do so please boil it first,’’ the council said.

The council advised residents on Facebook to go to their GP if they felt unwell.

‘‘Please don’t use water that hasn’t been boiled for any food preparation. I think this extends to cleaning your teeth.’’

George Street Normal School principal Rod Galloway said they were told of the water contamination mid-morning.

He said children could have ‘‘potentially’’ drank contaminated water.

‘‘As soon as we were told we shut off our water fountains.

‘‘We’re boiling water, we’ve also brought in water and have hand sanitiser available,’’ Galloway said.

Filadelfio’s Pizza owner Jo Beck said the council had not been in contact with the North Rd restaurant.

‘‘We didn’t know, it was just someone who rang us and said they’d seen it on Facebook. We would have been totally oblivious and gone on serving people unboiled water.’’