Far North 'floating in sea of sewage'

By BRIDGET CARTER

Some Far North communities are "floating in a sea of human sewage" during parts of the year, says a report to the Government.

Seven settlements are in a state of extreme public health risk with "Third World conditions" and others are like "a slum environment".

The report into the state of Far North sewage disposal was written by Northland medical officer of health Dr Jonathan Jarman as part of a request to the Government for just over $20 million for work on 23 sewerage schemes.

The plea for Government help is on behalf of the Far North District Council, which has infuriated residents this month by asking some ratepayers for more than $3709 a year to help to pay for more than $7 million of work scheduled on sewerage schemes this year.

Dr Jarman's eight-page report to the Ministry of Health quotes a general practitioner working in one of the "extreme risk" Far North communities as saying skin infections and gastroenteritis are endemic.

"If a doctor in an Auckland suburb saw the same level of disease he or she would declare it a disaster situation," the doctor said.

The report says the worst case of failed sewerage disposal systems was at Moerewa, where it backs on to a stream that flows to the Bay of Islands.

At Moerewa, sewage poured out of some homes on to the lawn.

People were surrounded by pools of raw sewage and could not avoid coming into contact with the effluent.

Housing New Zealand and the Far North District Council had been working to fix the problem, but in many cases the sewerage disposal systems were beyond repair.

At Russell in the Bay of Islands, Russell, a new $13 million sewerage system was needed. Effluent saturated the ground and the town had been called "sewage-sick".

Other "extreme-risk" cases included Horeke, south of the Hokianga Harbour, where sewage flowed out of homes and into the harbour; Te Hapua, just south of Cape Reinga; and Waipapa, north of Kerikeri, where sewerage systems had failed.

At Awanui, east of Kaitaia, the settlement was struggling with surface water contamination.

Sixteen other settlements, mainly based in the Bay of Islands area, had sewerage disposal systems considered a high health risk.

In recent years, Dr Jarman said, there had been several outbreaks of diseases because sewage was flowing from the Far North areas out to Northland's east coast and contaminating shellfish which people were eating.

Most of the problems with sewage were caused by the Far North's poor-draining, clay-like soils, combined with malfunctioning sewerage disposal systems.

Pollution through sewage added to the long list of problems for the region. Already, it was a district plagued by high unemployment and poverty, and high numbers suffered from Third World diseases such as meningococcal disease, rheumatic fever and tuberculosis.

Dr Jarman believed that the number of cases where people contracted diseases linked to failing sewerage disposal systems was higher than figures indicated.

Many cases were not reported, because many people could not afford to see a doctor.

Far North District Council chief executive Clive Manley said standards related to sewage disposal were rising all the time, placing a greater strain on councils to meet health and environmental requirements.

The serious health problems were mainly with septic tanks, he said. Three-quarters of the district's 54,000 people were connected to a council sewerage system.

Mr Manley said a decision over whether Government funding would be approved to pay for some of the sewerage schemes was expected to be made in September.

Health risks

Sewage-related disease outbreaks in the Far North.

Contaminated mussels gathered just north of Doubtless Bay four years ago make 14 people sick with hepatitis A.

Contaminated oysters from the Bay of Islands' Waikare Inlet are linked to outbreaks of the Norwalk-like virus gastroenteritis in 1994, 1999 and 2001.

Anecdotal reports of gastro-intestinal illness in people who regularly eat feral shellfish from the Far North.

Most harbours in Northland exceed the shellfish-gathering bacteria guidelines, says the Northland Regional Council's State of the Environment report.