‘Ill bowels' spurs switch away from tap water

Otago Daily Times

01-07-2025

Waitahuna Wonders owner Caroline Mann holds what she says is unsafe tap water, and alternative bottled water, at the pop-up shop in Waitahuna yesterday. Photo: Richard Davison
An Otago resident on one of the country's worst water schemes says she has switched to bottled water to prevent diarrhoea.
Waitahuna resident Caroline Mann said she made the switch several months ago, after she and other residents of the rural township near Lawrence noticed continual issues with "ill bowels".
On Monday, water regulator Taumata Arowai published its 2024 national drinking water report, which showed the Clutha District Council was responsible for 338, or 59.8%, of the country's drinking water quality breaches.
The supply with the most E. coli notifications nationwide was Waitahuna Rural (15), which is owned by the council, and is on a permanent boil-water notice.
Waitahuna Rural also continues to breach standards for aluminium in its drinking water.
Ms Mann said she had begun to sell bottled water to cyclists passing on the Clutha Gold Trail, which runs in front of her business, Waitahuna Wonders, as she did not want to give them tap water for fear of harm.
"Over summer, we often get asked to fill up bottles by cyclists, but I tell them I don't want to poison them, because the tap water is diabolical.
"Appropriately, our logo and sign is a skeleton cyclist — unless you stick to the bottles."
She said tap water was often brown, and sometimes stopped altogether when the local pumping station broke down.
"When we do have to use it we always boil it. But there's an additional expense to boiling water, or buying in bottles, so it would be nice if the council acknowledged that in our rates somehow."
Other residents on Clutha water schemes receiving a black mark from the report were more sanguine regarding their water quality, blaming "gold standard" regulations for breaches.
Retired Crichton farmer Stephen Woodhead, whose lifestyle block is on the North Bruce scheme near Milton, said he and his family were "very comfortable" with domestic water quality.
North Bruce breached aluminium levels 64 times last year, and had two breaches for "disinfection by-product".
"We boil our water anyway, although we use tap water for brushing our teeth, etc. We've noticed no ill effects," Mr Woodhead said.
"The consent breaches are arising because these are stock water schemes that, over time, have come to supply homes also. The standards for domestic supply have risen to a level that is unnecessary for stock, leading to a requirement for multimillion-dollar investment in infrastructure upgrades that are going to impact heavily on our rural communities.
"Yes, we need good regulation, but we need sensible rules that also allow for workable transition times that don't burden ratepayers unfairly."
He said a "middle ground" needed to be found.
"We should all be capturing rainwater off our roofs, for toilet and garden use. You have the situation now where some water is treated to very high standards, then people are watering their roses with it."
Mr Woodhead's comments echoed Clutha District Mayor Bryan Cadogan's response to the report on Monday.
He described the jump in standards as "like trying to turn a car into an aeroplane".
Taumata Arowai head of operations Steve Taylor said Clutha was working hard to make improvements.
A new, fully compliant, water scheme was expected to supply Waitahuna and other problem areas from December this year.
"Considerable work has been completed by the council in the past six months. We will continue to work closely with Clutha District Council as it addresses issues across its supplies."
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