Chch City Council creates its own reality

Suburbs dropped to lift water quality rating

The north-western suburbs have been hived off from the rest of Christchurch by the city council in a bid to improve its water-quality rating.

The move to separate suburbs such as Fendalton and Burnside means Christchurch has escaped a D grade for its drinking water.

New Ministry of Health figures measuring the risk of water contamination give a Da for the north-west of Christchurch and a Ba for the remainder of the city.

The whole of Christchurch had previously been a Ba, the highest grade it can receive without treatment.

The lowest grade is E and the highest is Aa.

Community and Public Health drinking-water assessor Judy Williamson said the council had changed its water grading boundaries when they were made aware of the Da rating.

"If you have got several reticulation zones, then the overall grading is a reflection of the lowest grade. Christchurch would have got a Da, so they (the council) re-registered the north-west as a completely separate community," she said.

The capital "D" was the grade for the water source and treatment plant and the small "a" referred to the water reticulation infrastructure and its management, Williamson said.

"If the population is greater than 10,000, the source and treatment should be `B' and distribution should be `a', so Christchurch is not getting there," she said.

We live in one of those NW 'bubs, but I haven't been able to find out where our water comes from. I'm sure it's perfectly fine. But that's not the point. If you're in Chch long enough, like say 24 hours, you'll hear someone rave about how 'Chch's water is the best in the world--they don't even need to treat it!'

There's also this persistent myth that the water is 40,000 years old. Maybe the Chch City Council can change the calendar to make that true, too.

It'll be interesting to see if anything comes from this. The NW is where most of the nice suburbs are and I doubt all the rich folks who live here are going to be pleased about this. But, on the other hand, it could be that people will prefer embracing the myth of pristine Chch tap water to facing the reality of having to treat it.