Safe drinking water sought
Residents of a small Banks Peninsula village are calling on the Christchurch City Council to build a $2.6 million water scheme so they can safely drink the tap water.
For decades, Okains Bay residents and visitors to the local camping ground have been unable to drink water from the tap, without boiling it first.
About 100 Okains Bay residents and the council-owned camping ground source water from a private scheme administered by a committee of locals. The supply does not meet the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand and health officials are putting pressure on the Okains Bay Water Committee to make the water drinkable.
The committee does not have the money to do so and last year asked the council for help.
The water is drawn from the nearby Opara Stream and fed into homes without being treated. The
40 households on the scheme are charged $30 a year to maintain the pipes and fix leaks.
A council report into the issue said it would cost $2.6m to build a new water supply scheme for the settlement, which would cost
$20,000 a year to maintain. The water would still be taken from the same stream, but from further upstream, about 50 metres above sea level. A new filtration water treatment plant and a new treated water distribution pipeline would be built. This was the staff’s preferred option, but no money has been set aside in the council’s budget for the work.
The Banks Peninsula Community Board decided late last month it would make a submission to the council’s draft
10-year budget, the Long Term Plan, calling for the council to fund the plant.
Okains Bay Water Committee chairman Peter Moore said it would be good if the council funded the scheme, because the committee was not able to.
He said while $2.6m might seem like a lot of money for 40 households, the water would be used by thousands of campers who stay at the Okains Bay camp ground each year.
Canterbury medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey said he was concerned for public safety and hoped the council would fund the scheme.
The campground catered for up to 500 campers during the busy summer months, which was a significant number of people who did need to have their public health protected.
Humphrey said $2.6m of taxpayers’ money would get soaked up pretty quickly if people became sick from a contaminated water supply.
The campground was legally required to ensure there was adequate supply of potable water, but the council granted itself an exemption from the requirements until June 2019.
Okains Bay resident Dianne Wilson said it would be great to have drinkable water come out of the tap.
‘‘It should not matter where in New Zealand you are, everyone should have access to clean water.
‘‘People can not understand, when we live in this pristine area, why we can’t drink the water.’’
Her husband worked in Christchurch and filled up water containers to bring home for the family to use.
Okains Bay School spends more than $1000 a year on a filtration system and water testing so children and staff can drink the water.