IT’S TIME WE HAD A REFERENDUM – CHLORINE WON’T SAVE US
Can you help? To get a copy of the petition and gather signatures, just email Pauline Doyle: guardiansoftheaquifer@gmail.com. It’s time we had a referendum on mandatory chlorination. Read more about this.
Chlorine would not have saved 5,500 people from being poisoned in Havelock North in 2016. Hastings District Council failed to monitor water quality immediately after the flooding and power outage on 6th August 2016. For the following week people drank a dose of sheep dung every time they used the kitchen tap or brushed their teeth. Then on 12th August the council woke up to the fact that there was a gastro outbreak in Havelock North, so they threw chlorine into the mix. But no amount of chlorine could cope with dung from 1600 sheep in the paddock next to the bores. Chlorine just led to a false sense of security in Havelock North. When Hastings District Council finally shut down the contaminated bores and connected Havelock North to the safe artesian water from Hastings – problem solved - no chlorine needed! What we need instead of chlorine is councils committed to doing their job - accessing healthy, safe source water and following up with vigilant monitoring of water quality all the way to the kitchen tap. If there’s a problem in the distribution network fix it, don’t just throw chemicals at it and tell us “job done”. Chlorine comes with health risks – the link between water chlorination and colorectal cancer is well established. Read more.
