John Harrison
Two years ago Havelock North suffered the worst water crisis in New Zealand's history.
It directly affected over 5000 people, with many hospitalised, and even resulted in deaths in the small community.
At the time Napier mayor Bill Dalton issued an intemperate press release saying that Napier had not only the best drinkable water in New Zealand but we also had infinite supplies to serve the city.
And he was right.
So how did we get to the disastrous situation that befell us this week?
Simple, a lack of council attention to our water source while millions of ratepayer dollars
— which should have been expended on our water supply, were lavished on vanity projects and commercial gambles.
Over $600,000 was wasted on two reports for the Velodrome in addition to over $1 million [plus trips to California for the mayor and CEO] for the $50m aquarium extension.
It is not the job of council to waste such huge sums of money on frivolous projects at the expense of our health and safety.
In a PR move to appease the concerned last year, our council added a special 1 per cent levy to an already ruinous rate increase, amounting to $500,000 to specifically address the insecure water situation.
We now know that a figure of 10 times that amount will be required!
So bad was the situation that Peter Wood of Drinking Water Assessors wrote to CEO Wayne Jack on July 21 revoking the secure bore status as they were not protected from contamination.
He also noted that there were "critical issues" that had to be addressed in order to meet Drinking Water Standards 2005 [Revised 2008].
The assessors raised concerns about animal proximity to bore heads, bore heads not being sealed and bore construction not meeting national standards along with casings not preventing ingress from shallow groundwater.
As a result of this damning report regarding our insecure water infrastructure the DHB required that our water be chlorinated until the secure status had been reinstated.
Bill Dalton, at the time stated that chlorination would only be required for 30 days!
A statement that we now know to be totally risible.
Worse, E. coli continues to be found in our drinking water — as it was in Havelock North two years ago.
The result of heavy doses of chlorine has been the continual scouring out of our decrepit water pipes resulting in not only smelly water but water coming out of the taps the colour of coffee.
To address this issue Bill Dalton advised residents to run their taps for at least 15 minutes to reduce the risk of drinking the sludge that is not only dangerous to residents but adversely affects the homeowner's plumbing ware.
This week he had the effrontery to blame Napier residents for using too much water when it was he who told them to run their taps over an extended period of time before drinking the water!
Local and national media reported him blaming his constituents for the water crises while at the same time the council was still irrigating the sunken gardens and local sports fields.
When running for election last year all members of council promised us that they would be totally transparent and held accountable for their actions — or lack of.
Once elected, the most important meeting of this term was on Thursday of this week and the public were shut out of the segment of the meeting dealing with water.
The meeting was to discuss the water issue, its ramifications and what can be done to address the issues together with the costs involved.
Both the mayor and CEO denied the public access to the part of the meeting dealing with water which affects the health and welfare of all residents.
The reason?
To protect councillors and staff from "improper pressure or harassment".
Totally unbelievable but true.
Not so at the HDC where all such meetings are open to the public on this issue.
What exactly do the mayor and councillors have to hide?
John Harrison is a former Napier City councillor. All opinions are the writer's and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
Opinion: Molten blobs of scoria pounded the roof.