So the Rotorua Lakes District Council along with the regional council are now doing remedial work to prevent a reoccurrence of that event, but I acknowledge nature has her own agenda.
So, what has caused the recent health issues with these iconic waterways? We as locals have been paying into lakes restoration and the Kaituna catchment scheme for decades.
Where has this money gone? No doubt, in my view, into costly wages of talkers rather than action to prevent contamination and increase the waterway flows into Lake Rotorua.
I acknowledge that housing development and land use has contributed to the current outcomes. C'mon, regional council. Action, please.
Charles Sturt
Rotorua
Hand sweeping needed
Periodically a sweeper truck does the rounds of the Ngongotahā streets.
Can someone inform me of the actual function that the contracted company is paid to do?
If it is to drive the truck around the streets alongside the kerb, dodging parked cars with circular brushes under the vehicle continuously rotating, then excellent job.
If, however, the objective is to clear the gutter/channel of any materials that may influence the flow of stormwater into the cesspits leading into the stormwater drains, then I do not believe this is being achieved.
The driver occasionally needs to get down from the vehicle and hand sweep the piles of dirt and vegetation where the mechanical brushes do not reach. The piles accumulate in places such as the Lake dead end of Paraone St.
Unremoved material in that and similar locations seem to have been ignored for years. It is also noted that large weeds are growing in many of the channels in Ngongotahā streets.
Garry Owen
Ngongotahā
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