Precautionary Boil Drinking Water Notice in Effect for Taumarunui & Manunui

A fault with filters at the water treatment plant in Matapuna has required Ruapehu District Council (RDC) to issue a precautionary ‘boil drinking water’ notice for Taumarunui and Manunui.

RDC Acting Chief Executive, Margaret Hawthorne, said that the ‘boil drinking water’ notice was purely precautionary and that disinfection of the water at the treatment plant is continuing as per normal.

“Over the last few weeks our contractor Veolia Water was finding that the filters which are the last step in the treatment process were slowly blocking,” she said.

“The problem was getting progressively worse to the point where the normal cleaning process of backwashing the filters was not resolving the issue as it should have.”

“This impacted on the volume of water that the plant could produce.”

“With the impending arrival of Cyclone Lusi the decision was made to take the filters off-line to allow the plant to full the reservoirs before the bad weather hit as we cannot make water when the Whanganui River is in flood.”

“Taking the filters off-line changed the audited treatment process at the water plant and in doing so the Health Act then requires us to issue a precautionary boil drinking water notice.”

Mrs Hawthorne said the precautionary boil drinking water notice was likely to be in effect until at least Monday (17th March).

“If anyone requires further information than can call their local RDC office at any time or see our website www.ruapehudc.govt.nz”

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