HAVELOCK NORTH: WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN REGIONAL WATER TREATMENT GOES WRONG Tourism New Zealand describes Havelock North as “a pretty country town known for art, honey and friendly restaurants”. In 2016, it also became the site of the country’s worst water contamination incident, which was linked to at least three deaths and more than 5000 cases of campylobacteriosis. “A bore that was connected hydraulically for groundwater was connected to a paddock where sheep were grazing. Some of the bacteria in the sheep manure found their way into the bore that supplied the community,” explained Dr Dan Deere – one of two international experts who advised the subsequent Government Inquiry into the incident. Soon, more than a third of the town’s residents fell ill. “In New Zealand it has been commonplace not to have chlorination for bore waters – even Christchurch hasn’t had chlorination until recently,” Deere said. The subsequent Havelock North Drinking Water Inquiry pointed to “a widespread systemic failure among water
suppliers to meet the high standards required for the supply of safe drinking water to the public” and recommended mandatory treatment of all public drinking water supplies in New Zealand, and the establishment of a dedicated drinking water regulator. For Australia, Deere said the message was: “we’ve got these barriers, but don’t get complacent and let them fail or give up on maintaining them. Just because things haven’t gone wrong for 20, 30, 40 or 50 years, that doesn’t mean they won’t go wrong tomorrow. We need to keep on top of our game.” Associate Director at Bligh Tanner, Michael Lawrence, has also been keeping a close eye on the incident and warned that in some Australian locations complacency may already be creeping in. “The Board of Inquiry into the Havelock incident found that the repeated detection of E. coli was defined as unsafe, and in Queensland we have many places where this regularly occurs,” he said, pointing to Queensland drinking water quality incidents last reported in 2017.
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