A Naseby fire fighter has taken aim at the Central Otago District Council (CODC), as residents of the tiny town plead for better water infrastructure. 

Paul Hart, who is the Deputy Chief at Naseby Fire Brigade, said the townsfolk are fed up. 

He said last year, the brigade copped the blame from Council for the town running out of water.

Paul said Council blamed the brigade because they had used the town water supply on a slippery slide at the annual Family Fun Day held on New Year’s Day. 

"We are getting sick of the council blaming the fire brigade for draining the water in Naseby last year when the water restrictions came on a day before the fun day.

"Plus we would have only used around 5000L last year, as we started to do it this year out of our tanker, so we measured how much we used before the rain hit.

"The Council has big issues to sort out and should take responsibility for it, not blame everyone else.

"The town can't have used so much water in that short of time this year, for a start no one was watering the lawn.”

The town ran out of water last week due to high demand, and then heavy rain forced the current Boil Water Notice because of sediment entering the system via the water race.

Holiday makers vacated the town almost immediately, with many others cancelling their stay or demanding refunds. 

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Paul said many people in the town believe the water tanks which supply the town’s water were only half full before Christmas. 

"Obviously the tanks were only half full, but no one will own up to the fact,” he said. 

“It needs to be sorted, they need enough water for the number of properties in town, not just the permanent population of 110. 

"I spoke to the water guy a couple of weeks before Christmas and asked him if the tanks were fully ready and he wouldn't give me a straight answer. 

"Also the fire brigade has been doing the slide for years without any problems." 

He said the water issue could have lead to a significant danger if there had been a fire emergency. 

“Yes, it could have, when they shut the water off without telling the fire brigade.”

Naseby is still on a Boil Water Notice after heavy rain since the turn of the year. 

CODC Infrastructure Services Executive Manager Julie Muir admitted there is not enough water storage in Naseby to cover busy periods. 

“Council acknowledges that there is insufficient capacity within the system to meet peak demand and provide adequate levels of reserves, which is why further storage is being installed this year.  

“We will also be investigating options for increasing the treatment processes to enable the system to withstand the impacts of heavy rain events on the source water quality.”

The town’s water tanks are currently full of untreated water, which is being supplied directly to residents' houses.

“In order to be able to treat the water the level of sediment in the water that is coming from the race needs to reduce,” Julie explained. 

“The operation of the plant and reservoirs is continuously monitored and recorded using a telemetry system.”

Naseby is still on a Boil Water Notice until the level of sediment in the water race is reduced.

Julie said the tanks were 82 percent full as of New Year’s Day, but were being drained at twice the rate it could be replenished. 

“The levels of the reservoirs are recorded, which is why we can confidently advise that the reservoirs were at 82% capacity at 1pm on 1 January when the impacts of the rain on the cleanliness of water in the race began to affect the ability of the plant to treat water.

“As previously advised, the normal resident population of Naseby is 120 residents.  

“This swells to between 3000 to 4000 people at the peak time, which places huge demand on the water supply.

“Under normal operating conditions the treatment plant generates about 5litres of water per second. At the peak time water is being consumed at a rate of 9-10litre per second.  

“This means that the level in the reservoir drops during the day while people are using water, and then refills at night when water is not being used.

“At the peak time last year there was a fault on the plant which required it to be shut down while repair was undertaken. Around this time water was taken for the family fun day.  

“The occurrence of the three events of peak demand, a failure at the plant, and an additional draw down from the reservoir resulted in the boil water notice occurring.  

“If any one of these three situations had not occurred then the boil water notice may have been able to have been avoided last year.”