Mr Kirk Wants Action On Sumner Pollution

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 7

Mr Kirk Wants Action On Sumner Pollution

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 29. Mr N. E. Kirk, member of Parliament for Lyttelton, wants the Board of Health tb take action on the Sumner beach pollution. He wants the board to require, under powers in the Health Act, the Christchurch Drainage Board to install a rising main to take effluent from the area between Sumner and Mount Pleasant to its treatment plant.

Mr Kirk will ask the Minister of Health (Mr McKay) to consider having this requisition issued so the work can be started without delay. Tonight, he said, he was preparing a letter to Mr McKay.

“Even now, in these circumstances, no-one can predict when the Drainage Board might get round to undertaking remedial work,” Mr Kirk said. “It is high time for positive action to put things right.” Christchurch citizens were now deprived of access to one of the city’s most popular and attractive beaches. While there could be no quarrel with the bathing prohibition, it was disturbing that officialdom seemed to be content with the erection of warning notices alone.

“All the warning notices in the world will not reduce the degree of pollution one iota,” he said. “The need to stop raw sewage being poured into the sea and on to the beaches is urgent. Even if immediate action is taken it will be some time before people can use the beaches confidently again.

“If all that is done is to erect notices prohibiting bathing it will be years before thousands of Christchurch people can patronise one of their favourite beaches again.” There was no evidence that the Drainage Board, if left to its own devices, would treat the matter as urgent, said Mr Kirk. “There is no prospect of relieving pollution from overflowing septic tanks and broken pipes without a system that will take effluent away from the district,” said Mr Kirk. “The drainage board has been putting off this work for a long time. “If the board continues to cling stubbornly to its present policies there is no prospect of the polluting effluent being diverted to the treatment plant for years. This is just not good enough,” said Mr Kirk.

Residents in the area had been plagued by drainage and sewerage problems for a long time and in spite of their well justified complaints, the authorities had allowed things to drift along until a health hazard existed. The Health Department has declared the beaches to be a health hazard. The Board of Health may require any local authority to submit plans, specifications and estimates of cost three months in advance. If the local authority fails to provide these within the specified time, the board itself may make the proposals and its costs must be defrayed by the local authority. The local authority may raise a special loan for'the required works without consent of. the ratepayers. The Board of Health normally meets twice a year, but its committees, such as the local affairs committee to which Mr Kirk’s recommendation could be referred, meet as events demand and have the authority to exercise powers conferred by the Health Act on the full board.