Water quality and quantity issues were again highlighted at the Central Otago District Council meeting on Wednesday,, when Mayor Tim Cadogan gave his report for the previous month. 

In an addendum to Tim’s report published as part of the meeting agenda, he addressed two water matters that had occurred since he wrote that initial report. These were the cryptosporidium outbreak in Queenstown and the Otago Regional Council draft decision on the minimum flow for the Manuherikia River.

Tim said that, as yet, there was no proof that the drinking water in Queenstown was the source of the cryptosporidium outbreak. However, because Queenstown did not have treatment measures in place to deal with protozoa, the water regulator Taumata Arowai told the council to put a boil water notice in place and keep it there until the treatment measures were put in place.

”We need to be aware, and our communities need to be aware, that is not just a Queenstown problem - it could as easily have happened here and to the majority of councils across the country.”

Some of Central Otago’s water treatment plants had barriers against protozoa but not all did, Tim said. There was some “talk, gossip, scuttlebug” that any council with supply that did not have a protozoa barrier might be put on a boil water notice by the regulator.

“If we do go on to a precautionary boil water notice like that, it’s going to be the boy who cried ‘wolf’. Anytime we do put one on when we really need it, people are going to go, ‘oh, whatever’. And, then people really will get sick from something that is in the water as opposed to something that almost certainly isn’t.”

The other matter was the release of the draft decision on minimum flows for the Manuherikia River, with extremes on both sides of the argument, Tim said.

“Some say the flows are not high enough and happen too slowly, with others saying that they are too high and are happening too quickly.”

In his opinion, those who were decrying the levels as being too high and talking of going to the Environment Court should be investing their money in engineers and not lawyers. 

“Any win that may come from the Environment Court, given the investment in time and money the Technical Advisory Group has involved, is likely to be pyrrhic. Increased water storage is the best option for meeting an increased flow, and an increased flow of some type is inevitable following this consultation.”

The same logic applied to those who said the proposed flow was too low, Tim said.

“I have sat in any number of meetings where people have plucked a number from their head and clung on to that as gospel. The flows the TAG (Technical Advisory Group) have put forward as ensuring the health of the river are what the experts tell us are right and I am not an expert, so I am not going to argue. 

On increased water storage, there would need to be a conversation with the broader community, he said.

He believed that conversation needed to be led by the council in the 2027 long-term plan as to what investment the populace as a whole was willing to make in a rebuilt, higher dam.

He encouraged people in the community to get involved and get informed.

The council received the mayor’s report, with Maniototo Ward councillor Stu Duncan, commenting that he thought water storage was going to be a big thing that needed addressing in the next 20 or 30 year plan.

“It’s not just sheep and beef,” Stu said.

“It’s all viticulture, horticulture, cherries, strawberries, lawns, parks and recs [recreations].”