There are 91 state houses in Havelock North. I asked about 12 residents who were working outside their homes, whether they received the $57 district council payout.
Those in privately owned rentals as I explained got nothing. Housing NZ did better. They delivered $60 New World vouchers to all those I spoke to in their state homes.
The Hastings City Council paid out nothing to their pensioners living in their six Havelock North properties. HDC withheld pensioners' payouts, according to their management ...
"because they are already on subsidised rent so don't qualify/not entitled".
But then so are most of those families on benefits and subsidised accommodation living in state houses and even private rentals.
That so called "rebate" cost ratepayers about $300,000, some put up by the regional council and reached only a few needy victims, the rest went into the pockets of the unaffected and landlords, the Hastings District Council included.
I believe this disturbing act of meanness demonstrates a council without empathy or proper understanding of the consequences of neglecting its drinking water supply to its Havelock North community.
Hardly the appropriate body to manage another fund for campylobacter victims.
Don't be fooled by the water stakeholder's interpretations of the facts.
The Hastings District Council may not have poisoned the well. But Lawrence Yule was a qualified water engineer serving as a councillor in 1998. According to counsel assisting the water inquiry Nathan Gedye, Hastings District Council and its mayor missed 51 opportunities (gastro transgressions) with $4 million in the kitty, to prevent the campylobacter outbreak of 1998 from returning with a deathly vengeance in 2016.
From Parliamentary papers obtained under the Official Information's Act,
"several parties - Hastings District Council, Hawke's Bay Regional Council and the Drinking Water Assessors - failed to adhere to the high levels of care and diligence necessary to protect public health for the Havelock North drinking water supply".
So be wary of platitudes of "councillors having a great deal of compassion for campylobacter victims". Only one councillor Simon Nixon fell victim to this horrible illness.
Contributing to the problematic issue of victim funding, there are only two Hastings District councillors serving today who lived in Havelock North at the time of the crisis. Two out of 14.
Two to represent a population of 14,000. Only two to argue for those 5000-plus affected, including tenants, children, and seniors in care who, mostly, don't pay rates or have a vote or voice in council matters.
According to a leader in her field, rheumatologist Dr Rebecca Grainger who is researching post campylobacter unwellness: "There is $100m in the Government Freshwater Water Improvement Fund. There are research funds available to territorial bodies who have need to measure, capture and report on the burden of ill health that the residents of Havelock North carry."
There is $12m budgeted to upgrade HDC's water supply.
And just by the way, where is the $4m from past years' drinking water budgets?
Councillors, stakeholders, our MPs and medical officers should be lobbying for access into those funds for campylobacter victims.
The offered $200,000 fund will go absolutely nowhere. It's an affront to the bereaved, those who suffered loss or were harmed.
Lest we forget those who died, those still weary and unwell, need all the care and resources that we can muster, served in abundance with gentility and compassion, whatever it costs, however long it takes.
Barry Erickson is retired and has lived in Havelock North for 40 years. He was chief compliance officer (inspector) for the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board for 20 years. He and his family were affected by the gastro outbreak last year. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz.
