Council plans to become class 1 water supplier, bypass treatment rules

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

Christchurch’s water supply technically leaves 170,000 people at risk of exposure to protozoa, but the city council’s head of Three Waters says residents shouldn’t worry and it has a plan.

The latest update comes as mayor Phil Mauger says a representative from Taumata Arowai, the national water regulator, has agreed to attend an upcoming Christchurch City Council meeting.

Brent Smith, the council’s head of Three Waters, said instead of putting protozoa treatment barriers into its water supply (as requested by Taumatua Arowai, following the recent cryptosporidium outbreak in Queenstown), the council planned to become a class 1 supplier. Reaching the threshold of class 1 status was not achievable for all of the council’s water sources, but could be for most, he said.

Most of Christchurch’s water comes from aquifers (an underground water source). If the city drew that water from a depth of 30m or more, it could meet the water regulator’s class 1 requirements and would not require a UV treatment barrier.

Read reporter Sinead Gill's full story here.