Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Maori incensed by consent to pollute stream

Updated at 7:27 pm on 19 March 2010

Hutt Valley Maori are incensed that the Greater Wellington Regional Council won't stop overflows of untreated sewage into the Waiwhetu Stream.

Te Rira Puketapu from Te Atiawa told Waatea News that decades of factory waste have already made Waiwhetu one of the most polluted waterways in the country.

He says the new 15-year consent granted to the Lower Hutt City Council will mean, on average, six overflows a year in heavy rain.

Mr Puketapu says the alternative requires the council to replace decaying clay pipes put in when the government built about 8000 state houses in the valley during the 1930s and 1940s.

Another alternative in the meantime, he says, is to discharge stormwater overflows into the Hutt River where they would be absorbed by the greater river flow.

In renewing the consent, which allows untreated sewage to be discharged into the stream in extreme weather, the regional council has required the city council to engage with local iwi to produce a report into the effect on local Maori.

Mr Puketapu says the city council has said in the past that its objective was to eliminate discharges, and he is not happy to be told it may take some time to achieve, if ever.

The city council says it is working hard to reduce the problem.

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