Water poverty a 'human rights issue' in rural Northland

Rural households running low on water are already contacting Rob Pink, whose daily school bus run around Rawene doubled as a drinking water delivery service for families whose tanks had run dry during last year’s drought. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Some rural Northland families are already running out of water due to the effects of Covid-19, inadequate rainwater tanks and dilapidated guttering.

While councils are taking steps to prevent a repeat of last summer's crisis when town water supplies came close to running dry in towns such as Kaikohe and Kaitaia, the 50 per cent of Northlanders who rely on tank water remain vulnerable.

Their plight has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic as urban job losses have brought Northlanders home from Auckland and Australia.

Inadequate and poor quality water storage is one of the causes of water poverty, a Civil Defence adviser says. Photo / Supplied

Civil Defence emergency management adviser Bill Hutchinson, of Kaikohe, said he knew of homes which had two or three people before the pandemic but now housed more than 15.

As a result their tanks were running low even before summer started.

Many rural homes also had small, ageing tanks or damaged spouting and guttering, which meant they weren't catching as much rain as they should — but the cost of repairs was out of reach.

The incident last summer that brought the problem home to Hutchinson occurred when he found an 80-year-old man filling up water bottles from a fire station tap.

The man, from a settlement south of Kaikohe, was embarrassed.

''He explained his tank had run dry but demand for water deliveries was so high he'd have to wait weeks and pay $900 to get his tank filled up. That was money he just didn't have,'' Hutchinson said.

A patched and holed tank accessed by ladders at a Mid North home. Photo / Supplied

Last summer school bus driver Rob Pink, who is also a Civil Defence volunteer in Rawene, delivered more than 500 10-litre cartons of drinking water to rural homes around the South Hokianga town.

At times his bus run doubled as a delivery service for water donated by a supermarket chain.

''I drive the bus all around there so I know all the whānau, and they were right out of water. Some of them have very small tanks from way back in the day so they run out really quickly.''

While water use in Rawene was restricted and emergency tanks were installed near the ferry ramp, the town didn't run completely dry.

''It was the surrounding areas like Ōmanaia, Whirinaki, up Duddys Rd, all the areas that are on tank water.''

With a new council-built reservoir and treatment plant supplying Rawene, Pink was confident the town wouldn't face water shortages this summer.

''But I think it's going to happen again in the rural areas. I've already had people asking me if I've got any water and I know one family that's genuinely down to the last rungs in their tank. The kids can wash in the creek but drinking water is the concern.''

Access to this family's water supply is by ladder in a broken concrete tank. Photo / Supplied

Those worries were echoed by Northland Regional Council community resilience manager Tony Phipps when he spoke to a meeting of the region's 42 elected representatives in Dargaville last month.

Water poverty, especially in areas without public water supplies, was challenging Northland's ability to handle future droughts, he said.

''Many households have inadequate old, poor condition water infrastructure with insufficient storage volume and no water treatment.''

It was a human rights issue, he said. Water poverty challenged Northlanders' right to have enough water for basic hygiene and do things like grow vegetables for healthy eating.

Last summer's drought had also highlighted health risks from households' poor water infrastructure.

Too many Northland homes have improvised or inadequate water tanks. Photo / Supplied

Half of Northlanders didn't get their water via piped council water supplies. That figure rose to 70 per cent in Kaipara.

It was even higher for the region's almost 180 marae with Phipps saying 97 per cent weren't connected to public water schemes.

Nationally only about 15 per cent of households were not on council water supplies.

The average New Zealand household used about 180 litres of water per person per day but Northlanders on tank water had just 40-50 litres a day during drought.

The problem was amplified in Northland by its older, smaller houses with small water tanks. A typical 120sq m home with a small tank would need water deliveries even in an average summer.

The affordability of tanker-delivered water was also a problem for many households.

Phipps said solutions such as community bores, water tanks and water treatment were being investigated for communities such as Te Hapua and Te Kao, north of Kaitaia.

Government agencies, councils and iwi were also considering setting up a Te Tai Tokerau Water Resilience Working Group.

While Rob Pink said he'd never seen the creeks around Rawene so low so early in the summer, Phipps had some reassurance for Northlanders worried about a repeat of last summer's drought.

Due to forecast La Nina conditions the region could look forward to average summer rainfall on the back of heavy July rain which had topped up natural water supplies.

Rivers were well above problem levels and groundwater levels were close to average.

A dry September had made people nervous but October and November rainfall had been good.

There would be spells without rain this summer but overall rainfall was expected to be normal, he said.