Water safety vital, but why the delay?

In the wake of the Havelock North crisis, when thousands were affected and at least four people were killed by contaminated drinking water, it is no great surprise to learn that the Christchurch City Council is considering temporary chlorination of the city’s water. Instead, the surprise came when it was revealed that the council took more than a month to tell the public.

As Mayor Lianne Dalziel explained at a media conference on Tuesday, the pivotal report from the Canterbury Water Assessor landed at council in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, December 22.

Council must have been as good as closed for the year because the report ‘‘wasn’t brought to high enough attention in the organisation’’, as Dalziel said.

Another three weeks passed before the Mayor heard, on January 15. The councillors were briefed in the same week.

One of them, Cr Mike Davidson, said he was disappointed that it took nearly four weeks before he and his fellow councillors were informed.

There are arguably two political failures that reflect poorly on the council as an organisation.

The first is a perception that the council takes the summer off and is slow to inform even its most central figures of something as important and, this being Christchurch, potentially divisive as a plan to chlorinate drinking water.

The second is a perception, likely to be more damaging than the first, that the council is still less effective than it could be at communicating with the public. Less than 12 months have passed since the Port Hills fires, which were marked by confusion between authorities and a terrified public that was desperate for useful information.

Dalziel said in February 2017 that she took responsibility for that breakdown in communication and a plan to improve emergency communication has followed.

While the news about chlorination does not qualify as an emergency, some in Christchurch will wonder if the council has really absorbed the lessons of last summer.

Canterbury medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey’s answer to media questions about delayed information is that there was no risk of imminent contamination and therefore no need for a boil water notice to be issued to the public. The city’s drinking water remains safe.

Chlorination itself is nothing to be afraid of, despite public concern that verges on paranoia about officials ‘‘tampering’’ with pure water – the quickest way to start an argument in Christchurch is to ask about fluoride.

Few minded when water was chlorinated for nearly a year after the 2011 earthquake.

Chlorination is again the right short-term solution while wells are made secure from the possible contamination that follows heavy rainfall. As Humphrey says, while the risk is slight the consequences of water contamination would be disastrous. No one wants a repeat of Havelock North.

It is the job of councils and health officials to be vigilant. A Government inquiry released in December 2017, again prompted by Havelock North, found that 20 per cent of national water supplies are still not up to standard, affecting more than 750,000 people. That report will have sharpened the minds of those monitoring water in Christchurch.