Health risk to potable water leaves no choice
Well, good luck to him. He came about as far as he could. He showed a bit of flair when he moderated the leaders’ debate this year. I mean he was lacking in experience, and authority, and gravitas, but good on him, he gave it his best shot, and he can leave with his head held fairly high, knowing that he wasn’t a complete disaster.
THURSDAY
I lay out by John’s pool this afternoon, and said, ‘‘Well, that’s it. I’m off, I’m done, I’m finishing with Seven Sharp tomorrow night. It’s over.’’
‘‘You’re doing what I did,’’ he said. ‘‘You’re leaving at the top.’’
I said, ‘‘They phoned me up four years ago, and they said, ‘We’ve got a few problems on this particular programme. One of them’s called Jesse Mulligan and the other one’s called Alison Mau.’ I think they had a third problem but noone can remember their name.’’
He said, ‘‘It was a shambles.’’
I said, ‘‘You’ve got that right. So the challenge was to turn Seven Sharp
around and get an audience and rebuild it and send it on its way.’’ He said, ‘‘And that’s what you did.’’ I said, ‘‘That’s why they paid me the big bucks.’’
He said, ‘‘But there comes a time when you’ve just got to walk away.’’
I said, ‘‘And the thing is you know when the time is right to do that.’’ He said, ‘‘End of an era, mate.’’
I said, ‘‘Same era as the one that ended when you left.’’
We didn’t say anything for a while. Just lay out by the pool sharing a bottle of 2005
Dom Perignon, lost in our thoughts.
FRIDAY
I threw out the sock. It had got a bit smelly.
— The New
Zealand
Herald RUDYARD Kipling said it, a century ago: My privy and well drain into each other/ After the custom of Christendie
. . . . / Fevers and fluxes are wasting my mother/ Why has the Lord afflicted me?
He set the problem in medieval times, but, sadly, it’s contemporary.
Not just in socalled developing countries, where charities work to provide clean water, but, Stage 2 of the Havelock North Water Inquiry tells us, right here in ‘‘clean, green, 100% Pure’’ New Zealand. For perhaps 800,000 people (20% of those using town water supplies), drinking water is ‘‘not demonstrably safe’’, and that doesn’t count those with private water supplies. The inquiry estimates that 80% of the population live in areas which need stronger water standards.
Experts were shocked to find pressurised sewage pipes close to drinking water assets — medieval indeed!
The report notes that not only are the figures unacceptable but, some are getting worse. Compliance with bacterial standards in 2016 was 86.4% (in England, Wales, and Scotland it’s greater than 99.8%), but preliminary figures seen by the inquiry show it dropped by 1.4% in 201617. It’s hardly surprising the inquiry recommends universal chlorination.
The Dunedin City Council announced, a day before the report was released, that Mosgiel would be connected to the chlorinated main city supply, because of the potential for contamination of its borefed system. Clearly, it knew what was coming.
Some have objected to the ‘‘undemocratic’’ decision, and to the lack of consultation, describing the move as ‘‘part of the nanny state’’ (the 5000 Havelock North residents who contracted campylobacter from their bore water, with four associated deaths and three sufferers developing GuillianBarre Syndrome, probably feel they needed rather stronger ‘‘nannying’’ by the state) and ‘‘bureaucratic nonsense’’.
The complainers need to get real. As council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said, public safety isn’t something you consult on.
A correspondent described Mosgiel bore water as ‘‘the best water in New Zealand’’. That’s really ‘‘nonsense’’. Dr Fricker (the international expert he denigrates) tells of conclusive evidence (including E. coli being found in the water supply) that faecal matter has entered it several times when surface water flowed into the aquifer. The correspondent may be happy to drink faeces — Civis wouldn’t be, and, more importantly, the DCC has a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that this doesn’t occur.
Those criticising the decision to change Mosgiel’s drinking water supply should do their homework and read the Havelock North Water Inquiry Stage 2 Report (it’s available online): in particular, Principle 6 of the six fundamental principles of drinking water safety which it sets out. As it notes, ‘‘Once contamination is detected . . . illness may have already occurred . . . the focus must always be on preventing contamination’’.
Under Section 69V of the Health Act 1956 a water supplier ‘‘must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the drinking water . . . complies with the drinking water standards’’. The Act also provides for the Ministry of Health to ensure compliance with the Act. The Stage 2 Report describes ‘‘a complete failure of leadership and stewardship within the ministry’’ in relation to this duty — perhaps not surprising in view of the damning performance review of the ministry recently released by the State
Services Commission. But the ministry’s failings don’t relieve the DCC of its duty.
For the present, at least, chlorine it must be. The DCC has acted responsibly. It should be applauded and thanked, not abused.
The rata in Civis’ garden usually flower, patchily, in January, but this year they’ve already been flowering for a fortnight. Those passing down George or Great King Sts may have noticed the magnificent displays from the mature trees by Knox Church and Otago Museum, their solid red and background green far outshining tawdry commercial Christmas decorations. Let’s hope no more of them are felled by chainsawhappy Housing NZ in the interests of reducing shade — something worth having in the recent fartoohot weather.