Free filtered water now flowing in Temuka
A Temuka business is being praised for providing residents with free filtered water in the midst of its asbestos issue.
Since the Timaru District Council (TDC) confirmed there were traces of asbestos in Temuka’s water supply on December 6, it had sent water tankers and pallets of bottled water to the town.
Nexus plumber and drainlayer Callum Bartlett said he set up a pipe which was running filtered water to a tap out front of the business on December 8.
‘‘There were people that couldn’t make it to [TDC’s tanker] in time, that had fears of drinking the water.’’
A number of people were worried about drinking the water from their tap at home, in spite of the TDC saying it was safe to drink.
So the filtered water had proved to be ‘‘incredibly popular’’, Bartlett said.
It was a ‘‘pretty basic’’ initiative to set up and he had the means to do, ‘‘just sort of helping the community out’’.
He was unsure how many people had used the tap during the past week, but said every time he had looked outside there were people there.
Tyre General fleet service rep Tyle Le Bherz said the set up was ‘‘wicked’’.
He had made the trek from Tyre General across the road a number of times to fill his water bottle up.
‘‘With the hot days you want to keep hydrated, and you don’t want to keep spending money.’’
He was impressed Nexus was helping to community out ‘‘in a time of crisis’’.
Temuka Community board member Paddy O’Reilly said it was a ‘‘good neighbourly’’ gesture Nexus was making for the community.
‘‘It’s good that the community it taking some positive action,’’ O’Reilly said.
The council was working through ways of solving the water issue, and gestures such as Nexus’ were one way to ‘‘ease the burdens of people’’.
O’Reilly hoped the filtration system the TDC were setting up would bring about a bit of normality for Temuka residents before Christmas even though the town was faced with level 5 water restrictions which meant residents were banned from using sprinklers and hoses.
He said the TDC was ‘‘going all out’’ to try and fix the situation.