Water chlorination starts in Selwyn, council seeks exemption

By Susan Sandys

Other·

13 Sep, 2022 05:00 PM3 mins to read

All public water supplies must have chlorination operating from the week of November 15. Photo / NZME

Chlorination of drinking water has begun this week as the Selwyn District Council strives to meet new requirements.

Chlorination is a public health measure being introduced by Government water authority, Taumata Arowai.

The authority was established following an enquiry into the 2016 poisoning of Havelock North residents from contaminated water connected to the death of four people.

All public water supplies must have chlorination operating from the week of November 15. The district council has confirmed its timetable – with separate supplies having chlorine added from today onwards.

While the district council has applied for exemptions from Taumata Arowai, it does not expect feedback on the applications until early next year. If an exemption was granted for a particular supply, the district council would be able to discontinue chlorination on that supply.

A district council spokesperson said Selwyn was the first council in the country to apply for an exemption.

"The district council is continuing to work through the process of applying for exemptions using a risk-based approach," they said.

"Chlorination has been widely and safely used to treat water supplies around the world for more than 100 years, including the majority of water supplies in New Zealand."

Heather Morton, spokeswoman for cleanwaterselwyn, said many people in the district believe there has been a lack of public consultation.

"There are some areas of Selwyn with permanent chlorination already in place.

"But for areas which are not currently chlorinated many residents want to keep their precious natural resource pure," Morton said.

The group has an online petition at change.org calling for chlorine not to be added to the district's water supplies. It had over 1400 signatures as of Monday.

Meanwhile, residents wanting to receive a reminder text or email when chlorination is due to begin on their supply can sign up for alerts at selwyn.govt.nz/wateralerts.