Council should ‘share costs’ of repair bill
A landlord facing a $40,000 bill for chlorine-damaged hot water cylinders says the city council should shoulder some of the costs.
Liz Harris, who owns more than 100 rental properties in Christchurch, has replaced 22 hot water cylinders since chlorine was introduced to the city’s drinking water. She fears more are to come.
Before the Christchurch City Council started to chlorinate the city’s water supply this year, she had ‘‘never lost one [hot water cylinder] except in the earthquakes’’.
‘‘I think they’ve got to take some responsibility and reimburse us, or at least a portion of it,’’ she said.
More than 2000 cylinders have been replaced across the city since June.
The findings of a recent investigation by University of Canterbury Professor Milo Kral found chlorine was most likely responsible for the spike in replacements.
The council said it agreed with Kral’s findings, but would not reimburse property owners for the repair or replacement of damaged cylinders.
Water supply improvement programme manager Helen Beaumont said last week ‘‘multiple factors’’ could contribute to water cylinders failing, including ‘‘the quality and thickness of copper used’’.
Cylinder manufacturers, concerned they were being blamed for the failing cylinders, met with the council on Friday last week.
At the meeting was Trevor Edwards, managing director at Superheat in Woolston, who commissioned the study after a huge increase in demand for cylinders.
He said there was no chance the issue was with cylinder quality.
The auditing and certification process meant the copper thickness and quality of hot water cylinders had to be perfect for them to pass, he said.
British Journal of General Practice has found seven in every eight children who have their tonsils out were unlikely to benefit from the operation.
This followed an announcement from the National Health Service in the United Kingdom that listed the throat surgery as one of 17 routine procedures deemed ‘‘ineffective or risky’’, according to reports in the BBC and The Guardian.
However, Associate Professor Patrick Dawes, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the University of Otago’s Department of Surgical Sciences, said a similar shift was unlikely here.
‘‘I don’t think you can necessarily make the comparison in terms of the populations and clinical approach.’’
In New Zealand, both adults and children had relatively high bars to cross before surgery is an option, he said.
‘‘One is that they meet the HealthPathways guidelines. The patient has to meet those guidelines and then have to score sufficient points on the national prioritisation scheme to cross the threshold for surgery.’’
In 2016/17 there were 3923 hospital discharges in New Zealand listing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy as the primary reason for the hospital stay. That was down from 4165 five years earlier.