On the 17th and 18th July, Greenpeace is conducting free drop-in water testing days to enable Southland households to check their bore water for nitrate contamination.

10am - 2pm, Saturday 17th July at the Holy Trinity Church Hall, Meldrum St, Winton

9am - 1pm, Sunday 18th July at St Marks Church Hall, 46 Devon St, Riversdale

Greenpeace is running the testing in conjunction with the Federation of Freshwater Anglers.

These are the fifth and sixth days of testing run by Greenpeace, with previous testing held in Canterbury. Last weekend’s testing in Ashburton showed nearly 10% of results were over the current health limit of 11.3mg per litre of nitrate contamination.

Greenpeace is supporting calls from medical experts to take a precautionary approach, and is calling on the Government to lower the limit for nitrate contamination in water from 11.3mg/L to 0.87mg/L in line with international research linking nitrate contamination to bowel cancer and adverse birth outcomes.

The major causes of nitrate contamination in drinking water are synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and cow urine.

Greenpeace is continuing its call for the Government to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser as part of the suite of actions needed to reduce nitrate contamination of water.

Greenpeace senior campaigner Steve Abel will be at both water testing days and is available for interviews.

© Scoop Media