A popular beach on Auckland’s North Shore has been given a black flag alert for water quality with a “very high risk of illness from swimming” due to sewage flowing into the ocean.
Auckland Council’s wastewater department Watercare alerted locals of the safety risk from swimming at Long Bay beachat 4.45pm today.
Watercare made the post on the Torbay, North Shore, NZ Facebook community group alerting beach-goers to the “very high risk” water quality rating currently up on their Safeswim website.
“Kia ora everyone... Not an ideal way to start 2023 - we’ve raised a black flag at Long Bay beach for 24 hours due to a wastewater overflow in the area,” the post said.
“A black flag means there is a very high risk of illness from swimming. You won’t see black flags at the beach, instead they are listed against the beach on Safeswim website. Before swimming at any Auckland beach of bay this summer, please check the Safeswim website.”
Just below Long Bay beach along Auckland’s northeastern coastline, Waiake Beach also has the black flag marker on the SafeSwim website - which will remain until at least tomorrow evening.
It is not clear what has caused the wastewater overflow in the two northern Auckland beaches, but it appears to be an incident specific to the Torbay area as nearly every other beach across the region on the Safeswim website has the green “good water quality” rating.
While such wastewater overflows are less common during summer, the Safeswim website states: “Overflows are more common in wet weather, but they can happen in dry weather if pipes are blocked or damaged.”
