Water Funding Delays Put More Kiwis At Risk
new-zealand-labour-party
Mon May 03 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Water Funding Delays Put More Kiwis At Risk
Monday, 3 May 2010, 11:59 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
**Water Funding Delays Put More Kiwis At Risk
**
The Government continues to sit on more than $80m of allocated funding which should be helping small communities make their drinking water safe, says Labour water spokesman Brendon Burns.
Brendon Burns said that when Health Minister Tony Ryall announced last September a review of the Drinking Water Assistance Programme, initiated and funded by the last Labour Government, he effectively put on hold applications from dozens of small communities which want to bring their water quality up to World Health Organisation minimum standards.
“Mr Ryall consistently claims that he is all about providing frontline services. Well, what better measure is there of a first-world country than all its people being able to drink their local water safely. That’s not the case in New Zealand.
“People are getting sick every day around New Zealand from water contaminated with water-borne diseases such as giardia and cryptosporidium which have among the highest rates of infection in the Western world. These are sometimes not just 'tummy bugs'. A cryptosporidium outbreak in Wisconsin in 1993 left 100 dead and 400,000 ill,” Brendon Burns said.
"An Otago University study last year showed we had 22 cryptosporidium cases for every 100,000 New Zealanders compared to three in the United States or 8.5 in Britain. The reported rates of infection for water-borne illness are said to be highly conservative as most cases aren't seen by a doctor.
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"Ministry of Health figures show almost one in six New Zealanders are drinking water that either fails to meet required standards or isn't tested. Meanwhile, Mr Ryall is now in the ninth month of reviewing the funding provided to assist small communities. There is more than $80m still unspent from the Drinking Water Assistance Programme provided under Labour.
"Mr Ryall said his review would be completed early this year. We are now in May. Meanwhile dozens of small communities wanting to improve their water quality are on hold. The Government has also pushed out by three years the requirement to meet World Health Organisation minimum standards.”
Brendon Burns says meanwhile Mr Ryall maintains that local bodies carry all the responsibility for ensuring New Zealanders are drinking safe water. "He cannot wash his hands of responsibility like that when he is sitting on the funding and pushing out the requirement to meet minimum standards."
ENDS
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