‘Big tick’ on keeping city water free from bugs

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

In the wake of the cryptosporidium outbreak in Queenstown, Gisborne District Council has put out information about how the city’s water is treated to keep us safe from bugs.

“We’re a big tick on that one,” the council said in an online statement.

“Our water treatment plants have multi-barrier protection in place, so the risk is very low of this type of contamination from our water sources.

“Multi-barrier protection means in Tairāwhiti our two water treatment plants supplying the city’s water from Waingake and Waipaoa both have two treatment barriers to protect our water from protozoa (cryptosporidium and giardia).

“One is sand filtration with all the necessary steps prior, and the other is UV disinfection,” the council said.

“There’s also automation that kicks in if a water treatment process or water quality goes out of the specified limits, sending alarms to the water operators.

“Our water treatment plants at Te Karaka and Whatatutu also have sand filtration and UV disinfection for protozoa and are automated to turn off if specifications are not met.

“Taumata Arowai, the new water services regulator of Aotearoa NZ, set the drinking water standards that we need to comply with.

“A focus on safe, consistent and compliant drinking water continues to drive substantial investment in our water treatment systems,” the council said.

“We have a project under way at the Waingake water treatment plant to instal pre-treatment filters to ensure our dam water is usable now and in the future.

“The Lamella project is a project in our 2021-2031 Long Term Plan at a cost of $5.5 million.”