Silent protest over bottling plant
A group of protesters have performed a ‘‘silent skit’’ against a suburban Christchurch water bottling plant.
Chinese-based owners Cloud Ocean Water received official permission from Environment Canterbury (ECan) in December to bottle water it already has permission to extract, amounting to about 1.5 billion litres per year.
It inherited the water take from a former wool scour at the site in Belfast and applied for a variation allowing it to bottle the water. The company will likely only have to pay a few hundred dollars a year for the privilege.
Pauline Baillie and four others performed a silent skit on Saturday outside the Christchurch Art Gallery in protest against the consent. It involved a large puppet, christened ‘‘the greedy water bottler’’, which was holding a bottle of ‘‘pure Christchurch water’’ and several placards describing how the plant got permission to bottle the water.
Baillie said the group’s main concern was regarding the plant using Christchurch’s water at a time the community was being asked to conserve water.
About 70,000 people have signed a petition in opposition to granting the bottling consent. In its decision, ECan said there was no reason under the Resource Management Act not to grant the consent, as the water take had been consented long ago and it could not discriminate based on the planned usage of water.
Baillie said the aim of the protest, which took place as strongman Mighty Mike performed nearby as part of the World Buskers Festival, was to try to make people as angry as the protesters were.
‘‘We don’t have a voice. Over 70,000 people have signed a pet- ition and nobody has listened to that, they don’t care.
‘‘We’re hoping to catch people’s eyes and make them interested.’’
Concerns were raised last year about the plant’s water use.
Packaging on bottles says the water will be taken from 200 metres deep. However, the company only has permission to bottle water from its existing bore, which is about 30m deep.
A parallel issue arose with what appeared to be unsafe work practices, revealed by contractors who had been inside.
They included workers precariously balancing on heavy machinery while welding, people sleeping in boxes, and workers unable to operate equipment.
It is understood five separate agencies have raised issues at the site, ranging from waste disposal to workers trespassing on the nearby train yard. WorkSafe had issued eight notices for a range of breaches.
A WorkSafe spokesperson said an inspector had visited again and found five of the eight notices had been addressed. The company has until the end of January to comply with the other three.
Two die in fire
A neighbour saved a disabled man from a house fire that killed two people and their dog in Dunedin yesterday. Mel Ryall had taken her husband to work when she saw smoke pouring out the back of the house as she returned home about 5.15am. As she called 111 she ran down the driveway and ‘‘heard this yelling from this wee man’’. She helped Kevin Taggart, who usually uses a walking frame, get to safety as flames spread around the wooden villa, which was split into two flats. Investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze.
Manslaughter charge
A 21-year-old Kaikohe man has been charged with manslaughter following the death of a man in the Northland town. Christopher Vujcich, 58, died in the Bay of Islands Hospital on Saturday morning. He had been in an argument with another man about 9.30pm on Friday, police said.
‘Feral’ mess
A ‘‘feral’’ mess of empty booze bottles and broken glass in a public Cromwell reserve in Central Otago at the weekend has infuriated residents and holidaymakers. Noise from partygoers at the popular lakeside reserve kept residents and holidaymakers awake until after 3am. Tony Heaslip, who was staying at a holiday park several blocks away with his young family, was so angry the next morning that he drove down a line of freedom campers sleeping beside the mess, honking his horn. ‘‘It was feral. The town we are from in Western Australia would never let anyone treat the place like this, especially a public area.’’ A police spokeswoman said police received two calls overnight about a party. The first caller was told to contact the council. The second call came about 3.30am from a security firm, asking for assistance with dispersing a group of about 50 people. When police arrived most of the people had left. No charges were laid as no criminal offences had been committed, she said.