The Heathcote River

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 8

The Heathcote River

Though the Woolston residents who waited on the Christchurch Drainage Board on Tuesday evening used some strong words to describe the state of the Heathcote river, they were not too strong. So much was virtually admitted by some members and officials of the board. The chief engineer (Mr E. F. Scott) went as far as to Say that the river was in “an appalling state” 30 years ago and that it was “ a little worse ” now. Most persons with a passing knowledge of the river will think that the deterioration over the last 20 years has been very much more marked than Mr Scott indicated. Be that as it may, the need for urgent remedial measures is established and

admitted; and Christchurch citizens’ generally will not be happy to find Mr W. P. Glue, chairman of the board’s works committee, still talking of the board having to face the question of trade waste control and disposal “sooner or later”. Board members have used this and similar expressions to excuse and justify delay for the better part of 25 years. The present board’s predicament, admittedly, is not of its own making. Previous boards have had more favourable opportunities to go. on with the trade wastes sewer, which was planned and then abandoned during the depression; and they have left this to the present board as part of a large legacy of accumulated works which should have been done years ago and which could have been done for much less than they will cost now or in the future. The Drainage Board is rightly preoccupied with the extension of sewers to serve new housing areas and the enlargement of existing sewers, the inadequacy of which is a very real menace to health. It should not wait until it has overtaken these arrears of works before making firm plans to deal, within a stated period, with the Heathcote river. Its condition is a reproach to the board and to the city.