Neglect means Kiwi swim spots off limits
‘‘APPALLING’’ neglect has led to hundreds of popular summer swimming spots around the country being labelled no-go zones this summer because of animal and faecal contamination.
This weekend, thousands of Kiwis are making their annual pilgrimage to waterside holiday spots but about 200 popular swimming places are closed or unsafe for humans because of contamination, according to Land Air Water Aotearoa.
And as raw sewage continued to spill out into Wellington Harbour, Forest and Bird chief executive Kevin Hague appealed for an urgent injection of funds to improve ageing stormwater infrastructure in major centres.
Hague said access to clean beaches and rivers was vanishing, unless action was taken.
A Sunday News investigation found half of the 2 billion litres of sewage-infected water that ends up in the Waitemata¯ Harbour comes from a single waterway, Meola Creek, in Auckland’s inner west.
Several beaches in the area have been closed because of pollution, and backyards along Meola Creek are often left deluged with tissues, tampons and condoms after storms.
The Auckland Council’s Safeswim website warns of a high risk of illness to swimmers at popular beaches at St Heliers, Little Manly, Te Atatu, and the lagoons at Piha and Bethell’s.
Hague said urban dwellers need to demand more action was taken to have safeguards in place from sewage reaching the harbours.
He said it was a multi-year, possibly multi-decade approach until everyone could feel safe swimming anywhere.
‘‘Unfortunately the infrastructure to cope with sewage has not kept pace with the growth of cities and towns. It’s absolutely appalling.’’
More money needed to be invested across the country he said. ‘‘There’s no reason why they can’t be safe again.’’
Environment Minister David Parker said he was determined to see the Kiwi ‘‘birthright’’ of swimming in unpolluted rivers restored, reversing the declining health of New Zealand rivers. ‘‘We all agree that no one should get sick from kayaking, fishing or collecting kai in a New Zealand river.’’
In September, the Government released its five-year plan to clean up New Zealand’s summer swimming spots and ordering councils to further manage and reduce, E coli levels and implement stricter restrictions.
Hague said the reforms proposed by Parker were encouraging. ‘‘If they are pushed through we will be on the path to recovery, but first we need to assure the problem doesn’t get worse and then we can move to recovery,’’ Hague said.
But it required everyone, from the Government to the general population, demanding change and ratepayers being prepared for increases, he said.
‘‘The key thing from Forest and Bird, is that all of us whether we live in the country and are farmers or live in urban areas, we need to value our fresh water much higher.’’
There needed to be more capacity for the pipes that separate sewage and stormwater so there was a plan B, he said.
Beachgoers in Wellington have been told to avoid the popular city beach for another week as sewage continues to spill into Wellington Harbour after a tunnel collapsed. A ra¯ hui, or temporary prohibition on water activities, has been in place since Friday afternoon.
To check the status of your local beach or river, visit lawa.org.nz
$4.56 a kilo, chips were about the same and peanuts were cheaper now.
For the mains meat, we’ve gone with chicken pieces and sirloin steak with tomato sauce. The steak was almost $3 more expensive now at $15.39 per 500g, but the chicken and tomato
sauce haven’t really increased in price.
In the vegetables department, the Food Price Index showed that potatoes have increased in price by just over 10 per cent to about $1.80 a kilo, which is roughly the same as inflation over that period, but pumpkins costs only about half what they did back then.
What summer barbecue would be complete without a lettuce salad? Most of the ingredients, except for the lettuce itself, cost roughly the same, which is a net drop when taking inflation into consideration.
Finishing off with a pudding of homemade pavlova, strawberries and icecream, we can see that the pavlova was about 20 per cent more expensive these days, but icecream was about the same.
Strawberries were about 20 per cent dearer now, but this fluctuates depending on the season.
Last up were the beverages. Soft drink and juice were marginally
more expensive, but that summer standard, sparkling wine, was exactly the same.
Some things never change. Prices for these types of products are subject to various pressures, such as seasonality and international export prices, but many on the list with a longer shelf life have stayed relatively steady.
Statistics NZ manager consumers prices Sarah Johnson said strong demand for meat in the international market has driven up the cost of these products.
‘‘This year we’ve seen meat prices rise after the African swine fever and reduced supplies of pork in Asia. That’s seen increased demand for other meats like beef and lamb.’’
Prices for fresh food such as fruit and vegetables can fluctuate a great deal depending on supply and demand, Johnson said.
Prices of longer-life products seem to be ‘‘reasonably consistent and reasonably competitive’’.