Waikouaiti-Karitane water update

Free fruit and vegetables will be available for residents in Waikouaiti, Karitane and Hawksbury from Tuesday.

The DCC will supply a range of fruit and vegetables to these residents until it is clearer what the potential effects are of eating home-grown vegetables that have been irrigated with local water.

Dunedin City Council Chief Executive Sandy Graham says, “This is a very worrying time for residents in these communities and it’s important we do what we can to help at a practical level while we continue working towards finding the cause of the contamination.”

The produce will be initially available from Tuesday to Friday at the East Otago Events Centre. The fruit and vegetables can be collected during the times the centre is open for blood testing. It would be appreciated if residents could bring their own bags.

The ‘no drink’ water notice for Waikouaiti and Karitane, issued on 2 February, remains in place.

Water tankers are still on site to make sure people have access to clean, safe drinking water. Staff have already given out more than 2500 containers for people to use. If people need help collecting water, they can phone 03 477 4000 to arrange this.

As well as having staff at tankers again from Tuesday to offer any assistance and answer questions, the DCC plans to set up a drop-in centre at the Waikouaiti Library the following week so residents are able to speak to staff about any concerns they may have.

While the source of the contamination is still not known, lead joins in older pipes, environmental contamination in the wider catchment, or even sampling errors, are all potential causes of the spikes in lead which led to the ‘no drink’ water notice being issued.

Work to dig up and check the condition of some sections of old cast iron water pipes in Waikouaiti is almost complete. Five sections of pipeline across the area, including a section in Edinburgh Street, are being assessed.

Where lead joins have been used, the DCC plans to replace these sections in the near future to remove that potential source of contamination from the network.

Ms Graham says the next set of water test results will be available on Tuesday.

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