Fears for future of fund for safe drinking water
new-zealand-labour-party
Thu Aug 27 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Fears for future of fund for safe drinking water
Thursday, 27 August 2009, 3:41 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
Brendon Burns
Water Quality Spokesperson
27 August 2009 Media Statement
Fears for future of fund to make drinking water safe
Health Minister Tony Ryall is deferring applications from 71 small communities for assistance from the national funding programme to meet minimum standards for drinking water, says Labour water quality spokesperson Brendon Burns.
“This lifts fears that the future of safe water is now in the hands of Finance Minister Bill English and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide. Neither is committed to safe drinking water for small communities,” Brendon Burns said.
“The Health Minister says he is evaluating the subsidy funding to see how ‘such schemes align with government priorities and provide value for money in the health sector’. That is classic double speak
“Mr Ryall’s answers to written questions raise serious further concerns about the Government’s commitment to meeting World Health Organisation (WHO) minimums for drinking water quality. The applications he has put on hold include marae, scout and Christian camps. All have been waiting months for the latest round of Government grants.”
The Government has its eyes on the $88m balance of the $136m programme funded by Labour to help small communities make drinking water safe, Brendon Burns said. “My information is that Mr English, himself a rural MP, wants to force all but poorest communities to meet all the cost of improving their water supplies. Small marae will be hit by a $1000 maximum per capita figure. A facility, such as a scout camp, which part-charges for a visit, will have to pay the full cost.”
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Brendon Burns said the Government is supposed to be committed to WHO guidelines, sparked by an outbreak of campylobacter and E.coli in rural Ontario in 2000 which killed seven Canadians, left many more with permanent kidney failure and thousands of others ill.
“Mr Ryall should be driving policies to lift our water standards and improve our health. Instead, Mr Hide describes the standards as ‘ridiculous’ and insists on a three year moratorium on meeting WHO minimums. Now Mr English wants to cut or scrap the assistance in place to help small communities at the same time as Local Government New Zealand is calling for more funding.
“When outbreaks of serious or even deadly water-borne illnesses occur, Mr Ryall and his colleagues will not be able to wash their hands of responsibility.”
ENDS
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