Lessons to be learned from outbreak

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Hawke’s Bay Today asked Hastings District Councillors what their opinion was on the current gastro outbreak.

JOHN ROIL: "I think there are definitely lessons to be learnt but we will have to wait until the formal investigation has been completed before we see what these are."

GEORGE LYON: "We have done everything we could, we dealt with it as well as possible by giving press releases, updating the website and making sure people were aware."

JACOBY POULAIN: "It is a horrible situation and has affected a lot of people. We are doing what we can to offer welfare support and we are looking at how best we can offer this."

HENARE O'KEEFE: "It is soul-destroying and we are doing everything humanly possible to fix it. There are lessons to be learnt and I pray the damage is not permanent. We should let the healing take place."

CYNTHIA BOWERS: "It is a dreadful situation. We are doing as much as we can to get it sorted and everyone is responding. We do not know what caused the contamination so I cannot comment on whether it could have been prevented."

MICK LESTER: "I have no comment about the situation except from what Mayor Lawrence Yule has released."

SANDRA HAZLEHURST: "We need to put future plans or policies in place so it does not happen again. My number one priority is to make sure people are safe and I have just walked around the rest -homes and businesses to check people were coping."

ROD HEAPS: "The number three bore had issues previously and instead of just shutting it down, maybe we should have solved the problem then it might not have escalated to this. I feel disgusted and I think the community has been let down hugely."

SIMON NIXON: "I am irritated as we have had early signs when we had to chlorinate the water for the third time, it should have rung alarm bells. The flow of information was lacking. We could have had a commercial warning residents every 15 minutes."

WAYNE BRADSHAW: "There was E. coli in the water in October after a storm, we should have learnt. There should be increased testing, we should be as cautious as possible with health. It should have been managed like an emergency and given to CD."

TANIA KERR: "I think it's a tragedy but because I live on a farm and as the rural councillor I am not the best person to comment on the situation. My duties have instead been tied up with the storm from last week."

ADRIENNE PIERCE: "The sun comes up and people are still sick. I am unhappy about the lack of information, for example there was nothing put in mailboxes so those who did not have newspapers or computers were left in the dark."

MALCOLM DIXON: "It is a catastrophe and I feel very sympathetic to all those who were affected. The council and DHB are doing everything possible to alleviate the problem."

KEVIN WATKINS: "This has been a distressing time for so many people in HN. I applaud the efforts of so many working to get our water safe and those affected back to good health. That is the priority, then time for questions."