The Upper Clutha is not affected by the current cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Queenstown, but the situation has brought to light deficiencies in Wānaka’s water treatment plants.

Water regulator Taumata Arowai has served a compliance order on Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) for its Two Mile water treatment plant which serves much of the Whakatipu Basin. It does not have a protozoa barrier to stop the parasite cryptosporidium from entering the water supply. 

The outbreak has so far resulted in 21 cases of cryptosporidiosis in Queenstown. 

QLDC water schemes currently without a protozoa barrier include Wānaka, Luggate, and Wānaka Airport, despite the fact the council was reminded of the importance of this measure in June this year by the water regulator.

Councils were supposed to have barriers in place by November last year.

Taumata Arowai head of regulatory Steve Taylor said the lack of a protozoa barrier “creates a serious risk to public health”.

Steve said that Taumata Arowai is aware of around 190 supplies in New Zealand (serving approximately 13 percent of the population) that have similar source water characteristics to the Queenstown supply which do not have a protozoa barrier at the treatment point. 

“In June, our chief executive wrote to all council and government-operated drinking water suppliers and reminded them of their responsibility to meet the requirements of the Act and the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules,” he said.

“We will be writing to people operating supplies that appear to not have appropriate multi-barrier treatment options in place.” 

The Water Services Act 2021 (the Act) requires drinking water suppliers to ensure the drinking water they provide is safe, which includes a multi-barrier approach to managing risks; and the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules requires this kind of drinking water supply to have a protozoa barrier. 

QLDC mayor Glyn Lewers told media this morning that it may take months before treatment plants were upgraded, but did not specify if he was also talking about plants outside the Queenstown area.

He said the council was opting for UV treatment for the Two Mile treatment plant as it was the quickest to install.

QLDC infrastructure operations manager Simon Mason said the cost of the UV system would be in the millions, and the barrier would cost about $30M. 

The current boil notice in place in Queenstown since Tuesday (September 19) applies only to Queenstown, Frankton and Kelvin Heights.

The Wānaka App has approached QLDC asking what plans are in place to upgrade the Wānaka, Luggate, and Wānaka Airport water supplies.

PHOTO: Supplied