BOROUGH WATER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1941, Page 6

BOROUGH WATER

CARTERTON SUPPLY APPEAL BOARD’S INJUNCTION. CHLORINATING PLANT MUST BE INSTALLED. A case of importance to local bodies throughout New Zealand was heard by an appeal board comprising Mr H. P. Lawry. S.M.. and Messrs Baker and J. Steele at Carterton recently when the Carterton Borough Council was ordered to carry out an injunction by the Department of Health that it instal a chlorinating plant for the borough water supply. Many boroughs throughout the Dominion will be placed in the same position as Carterton. Mr H. H. Daniell appeared for the Carterton Borough Council, and Dr. H. McLean (Wellington) conducted the case for the Department. After hearing lengthy evidence the Board decided that the council should instal the plant, but stated that if the work could not be carried out this financial year it must be in 1942. Mr , Daniell quoted at length from American and English authorities. He submitted that the general standard of health in Carterton over the past three years had been good. Bacteriological tests taken had alvzays been good. The Department of Health contended that the intake might be affected by picnic parties at Mount Holdsworth, by sewerage from various farms and houses adjacent to the river and water race. If chlorination was carried out it would mean protection for the whole community. It was the sanitary condition rather than the bacteriological condition which concerned the Department. A case in Croydon was cited, where repairs were being made to the reservoir, and the ordinary purification plant was out of commission. One of the men on the job was a typhoid carrier. As a result of the epidemic which followed action was taken against the council by those effected. The council had to raise a loan of £150,000 to meet the claims.