Tests results received today confirmed that it was “highly likely” that the bug in the water that caused widespread illness in the town is campylobacter, says Hastings District Council.

Since chlorination of the drinking water supply started on Friday, all tests of the water supply have been clear. Those tests have been carried out daily.

Chlorine is very effective at killing campylobacter and was put into the water supply at 5.30pm on Friday night. Staff then worked through the night, drawing water through the pipe system so that chlorinated water would be right through the residential area by the following morning.

On Saturday morning, rural residential properties with tanks filled from the town supply were chlorinated and schools’ pipes were flushed to ensure all water systems, such as drinking fountains, had treated water through them.

Boil water notices, issued on Friday, remain in force. That means that water needs to be boiled for one minute and then cooled before drinking.

In response to concerns that a similar issue could be present in other Hastings water supplies, a full suite of tests on the Hastings central and Flaxmere supplies were carried out yesterday. Those tests have come back clear, says Mr Yule. “To provide reassurance, daily tests will be carried out on all supplies, both the bores and the reticulation systems.”

“The water supplies are completely separate, but we wanted to put people’s minds at rest. We can report that absolutely all tests from 19 points the bores and across the systems in Hastings and Flaxmere are clear,” said Mr Yule.

It is important that everyone has confidence in the process to find out the cause of the Havelock North water problem, he said.

ENDS

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