Keep boiling tap water, residents urged

Tim Baker helps Suraya Brown with some water for her house. Photo / Greg Bowker

Hundreds of thousands of Canterbury residents will probably have to keep on boiling tap water for drinking until the end of this week to minimise the risk of outbreaks of sewage-borne disease.

A medical officer of health for the region, Dr Alistair Humphrey, said last night there had been no increase in notified cases of gastro-enteritis since Saturday morning's earthquake, although 20 people at an emergency welfare centre were sick with diarrhoea and/or vomiting.

Dr Humphrey said it was unknown whether the two families involved in the disease "clusters" at the Linwood centre had been been infected by water contaminated by sewage because of the earthquake. Samples had been taken from the families yesterday but it would be two days before there were answers from laboratory tests.

The two families had been isolated and the illness had not spread to others at the welfare centre.

Residents of Christchurch City and the Waimakariri and Selwyn districts are still advised to boil, for at least three minutes, drinking water from taps and from the city's emergency water supply stations because of the risk of contamination.

Dr Humphrey said sewage had been able to get into treated water supplies because of damage to water pipes and sewers. The local authorities were working on fixing the leaks, but he expected it would take all week to restore safe water to all of the region.

Meanwhile, Canterbury's public health system has been spared the added pressure of industrial action.

Unionised radiographers and medical laboratory workers at the Canterbury District Health Board have, because of the earthquake, given up their partial strike action. And the radiographers will not participate in what was to be a national strike.

However, the strike by radiographers for 24 hours at the other 19 DHBs is set to proceed from this morning - and the lab workers' union has given notice of another full strike at Auckland DHB, for 24 hours starting on September 21.

Hundreds of patients have had elective surgery cancelled and some outpatient appointments have been put off.