Letters: Tourism, farewells, drought, flouters and the Northern Pathway

Aircraft are grounded around the world during the Covid 19 coronavirus pandemic. AP Photo / Michael Probst

Great plane robbery

The tourist industry must be the only industry in New Zealand where you can pay for a flight and, when the flight is cancelled, no money is returned. You can pay for accommodation and, if the flight is cancelled, there is no refund for the accommodation. You can pay for a cruise and the ship is not running but there is no refund. The tourist industry will sell you insurance then you discover on page 88 in very small print there is no cover, and no refund. Some will tell you your money held in a trust fund, but the trust fund is overseas and the staff in NZ have no access to the fund. You can take another flight, but it must be in the next three months. Who wants to go to Europe while they still have Covid-19? I feel we have got caught up in a great train robbery. We saw friends going overseas the day before NZ locked down because they could not change a flight or get money returned. They had a rotten holiday, but that would not matter to the tourist industry as they got the sale.
Barry Birchall, Oratia.

Difficult farewells

Having had many years in the funeral industry, as a funeral director and dealing with grieving relatives, I can tell you there would have been absolutely nothing worse in the world or more distressing than prohibiting loved ones to be with their dead or dying relatives.
That decision by the Government was callous, to say the least, and something that should have never been put in place. A very basic human right was taken away. It would have been as simple as protocols put in place to prevent infection between family members, and I honestly hope that something is put in place for the future.
Darren Masters, Panmure.

Lockdown legality

Regarding Amelia Wade's story (NZ Herald, May 6) on the legality of the lockdown, my view is that Simon Bridges and David Seymour are desperate for some kind of traction.
Let's say the legality is marginal - would Bridges and Seymour have waited until a new law was drafted before locking down and then tried to defend the deaths and say "oh, it's okay, because we didn't have the legal authority"? I doubt the population would support that.
They're now arguing over an academic issue. The Government did what was necessary at the time because lives were genuinely at stake.
Under non-life-threatening circumstances, their point could be valid. Under these circumstances, Bridges and Seymour just look desperate, and risk being seen to be panicking because they realise they are irrelevant.
Mike Holloway, New Lynn.

Black water

Glen Stanton is right (NZ Herald, May 6) about Auckland needing to future-proof its drinking water supply, especially with our population projected to grow steeply in the next two decades. However, desalination isn't the answer because it is energy-intensive.
A better solution would be "black-water processing" or treatment of sewage to produce water of a potable standard. Currently, we treat sewage to a high level and then pump vast quantities of clean water out to sea every day.
With a little extra treatment, that water could be fed back into the freshwater system.
Cities all around the world do this.
As they say of London, it has the cleanest water in the world, because it's been through seven sets of kidneys before it reaches you.
Jonathan Jepson, Torbay.

River potential

Glenn Stanton (NZ Herald, May 6) suggests a desalination plant. Obviously, he is not aware that the Melbourne plant cost $3.5 billion and the water it produces costs something like three dollars per cubic metre. The electricity consumption is 90MW, which is nearly 2 per cent of New Zealand's peak demand. Since it was commissioned, it has been mothballed most of the time.
The existing Waikato treatment plant can deliver 150 million litres per day. The average flow of the Waikato River is 170 times higher so there is plenty of water available.
It is quite possible that the flow extracted from the Waikato is restricted by its water right – something that, in a rational world, could be solved in a few days.
The pipeline was designed for a flow of 2 m³ per second – I70 million litres per day. Simply by the addition of booster pumping stations, which are used on a similar pipeline installed for New Zealand Steel, a 50 per cent increase in capacity seems to be possible.
The engineering solution is simple and easy to achieve. Bureaucracy, not engineering or economics, is the problem.
Bryan Leyland, Pt Chevalier.

More storage

Building a desalination plant for Auckland is not such a good idea.
Countries where plants have been built suffer from a critical lack of rain. I don't believe this to be the case in Auckland. We require more storage so as not to waste the vast quantities of rainwater that run off into the sea.
Desalination plants are energy-hungry and the threat to fisheries and marine life should make communities think twice about desalination as their solution.
Mike Christie, Whitianga.

Muppet show

"No surprise that Aucklanders were the worst offenders" (NZ Herald, May 6). Of course we are. However all this data needs to be considered on a per capita basis.
Aucklanders don't consider themselves above any rules. I can assure Marie Kaire that I have remained in my bubble of one, all my friends and whanau have remained in their bubbles and we are just as frustrated as everyone by the muppets who disregard the rules. Those muppets are by no means only Aucklanders. Careless food queues were all over the country, I'm sure including Whāngārei. Then there were the 100+ attending the tangi in north Canterbury. Irresponsible people are everywhere.
Aucklanders are exactly like you, we are anxious, lonely and hanging out for level 2. And we won't be taking stupid risks that might send us back to level 4, which would be far, far worse for all of us.
Judy Lawry, Golflands.

Easing restrictions

In times of crisis, some restrictive regulations are tolerable even though they infringe on fundamental liberties such as the right of free passage, and the right to meet.
However these restrictions, and others like them, can be too easily imposed under emergency powers and the ability to do so can become dangerously intoxicating and habit-forming.
They should not be tolerated in a free society for a moment longer than necessary.
We are fortunately at the point where the justification for them grows weaker by the day. Most of them should be revoked forthwith and normal rights and liberties restored.
Peter Clapshaw, Remuera.

Other options

Andrew Thackwray's defences (NZ Herald, April 21 & 29) of the NZTA plan to compulsorily evict the owners of six Northcote Point homes for an on-off cycle and walkway ramp, I find to be both callous and hollow.
They show no regard for traumatic harm to the homeowners being forced out of their homes with no choice in the matter and are destructive of Auckland's heritage in an environment recognised and zoned as being of highest heritage quality.
The ramp doesn't have to be at this point. It can be up to 150m back up the bridge. Or it can be up to 800m further, on at Stafford Park. No homes or properties need to be demolished. None of the associated costs (millions of dollars in acquisitions and demolitions) need to be incurred.
NZTA has chosen the one decision that will cause the most harm. NZTA must be required to stop and re-consider options that will cause no harm. No deliberate and unnecessary disruption of people's lives. And no further destruction of Auckland's heritage.
Those options exist aplenty. NZTA must find one.
Clyde Scott, Birkenhead.

Tragedy shared

No surprise those who reject the expert advice on handling a pandemic are the same people who reject the scientific view of climate change. For them, ideology trumps evidence.
The tragedy of the commons means, because we all share the one atmosphere and one civilisation, the rational and informed are in danger of dying with the fools.
Dennis N Horne, Howick.

Short & sweet

On level 2

A little more patience and a lot less clamouring for what will be our new normality just for the economy's sake will serve us all a lot better than jumping the gun. Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.

On service

From Seaman Boy NZ Division of the RN to Chief Petty Officer RNZN, I thank the family of the late Mr Batt for his service, especially on HMS Achilles at the battle of the River Plate December 1939. Lest we forget. Mark Holms, Piha.

On divisions

We should be cautious before government agencies, in this case health and education, attack each other over policy issues. That's happening right around the world and it's because everybody is operating in unknown territory. David Nicholson, Karori.

On lockdown

It is blindingly obvious that we went late; and possibly too hard as well. Peter Newfield, Takapuna.

On neoliberalism

Commentators like Thomas Picketty, Simon Wilson and Robert MacCulloch realise that helping the few to get rich at the expense of the rest is an ideology of disaster for the
planet, world health, education and social stability. Geoff Barlow, Remuera.

On RMA

By introducing a fast-track consenting process for "shovel ready projects", the politicians have at last acknowledged something must be done about the cumbersome consent process under the Resource Management Act. Vince Ashworth, Morrinsville.

On visits

Surely arrangements could be made to facilitate people to visit their dying family members safely, particularly as there is no evidence of Covid-19 being involved. Julie Tyson, Epsom.

On Bridges

In these challenging times, there will inevitability be mistakes and difficulties in certain personal health situations. For Opposition Leader Simon Bridges, however, to publicly blame the hard-working Director-General of Health is totally unacceptable, political grandstanding at its worst. Hylton Le Grice, Remuera.