Stewart Barbara: Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Stewart Barbara: Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4365] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First I rise to support the Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill. It is an absolutely essential role of any Government to ensure there are safe and adequate drinking-water supplies for all New Zealanders. It is a public health issue. In fact it is a requirement for any First World country and here in New Zealand we like to think of ourselves as a First World country rather than as a Third World country. We believe that many New Zealanders believe that legislation is already in existence to ensure that all of our drinking water meets a required standard. 
It is an unfortunate fact that here in New Zealand we have relatively high rates of largely preventable gastrointestinal disease compared with other countries. Although we are realistic and we realise that it is not all due to drinking water a percentage can be attributed to contaminated drinking-water and this occurs particularly in rural areas. Earlier we heard that school camps are a very good example of this. The current drinking-water legislation gives little effective protection or deterrence against a major outbreak of disease particularly if the drinking water is contaminated. So New Zealand is faced with the need to review our strategy and improve it in this area. 
We were surprised to find that at this point in time a largely voluntary regime governs the procurement of water from the environment the actual storage of water the assessment and treatment of water and the distribution of that very same water to the consumer via pipes and tankers. Earlier speakers have already brought out the statistics. The voluntary scheme has resulted in 71 percent of the New Zealand population being served by water suppliers that comply with the E. coli criteria. A further 29 percent is served drinking water that is either not compliant or not known to be compliant. That when we consider it is almost a third. It affects rural communities particularly those communities that National proclaims to be its constituency. We are very pleased to see that the bill requires drinking-water suppliers to take all the practicable steps they can to ensure we have an adequate supply of drinking water that complies with some standards. 
Like many other New Zealanders I live and holiday in a rural area where all of the community is dependent on tank water. Of course in dry summers it is inevitable that the tanks run dry. We need water so we have to purchase a tanker load of water. The taste clarity and smell of the water vary greatly from one load to another and from one house to another house. Obviously we are very dependent on the source and supplies available at the time to the tanker driver. We all wonder about the quality of the water we are purchasing and of course as residents there is nothing we can do about the water if we do not like the taste or the smell apart from hope that the rains are coming and that that will give the water an improved smell and taste that makes it far more pleasant to drink. One of the positive aspects of this bill is that there is a requirement for water carriers to be involved in developing guidelines which will at some later date form part of these very water standards. In our area we cannot be sure of the cleaning processes or the cleaning products actually used by the various suppliers to clean the tankers that are delivering the drinking water to us. We believe that standardisation and compliance with a standard are essential. Perhaps we could then be sure about the quality of the drinking water we receive. 
It is unrealistic to believe that totally accurate information would be available to estimate the likely costs of compliance around the various regions in New Zealand affected by the bill as that depends to a large extent on the size of the operation as well as what it currently does. One would believe and hope that many of these businesses would already ensure that their water services and their water meet various quality standards so the cost to those people may very well be minimal. After all we are a First World country and we believe that safe clean drinking-water is essential. 
New Zealand First will be very keen to hear the views of various submitters on this bill as clean drinking-water that we can all be totally confident about is a very important issue. I was very interested to read on the Ministry of Health website that water-borne disease is estimated to cost the New Zealand economy about $15 million per annum at present. New Zealand First has some concerns that this bill applies another role for local bodies to deal with and that it will establish some expenditure priorities for them that they had not planned for at this point in time. Of course at the end of the day it is ultimately the ratepayers who will be paying this cost. I have spoken to some ratepayers who are very satisfied that under this bill their drinking water will comply with water standards and many of them are very keen to say this. As with other products that we eat it is a reasonable expectation that we can have the records and the documentation that relate to compliance. 
Anne Tolley 
: Did you tell them how much their rates will go up? 
BARBARA STEWART 
: I suggest that the National member who is continually calling out should look around her own electorate and find out some of the challenges that many of the rural areas have with water. Most of the non-compliant communities are very small. They are mostly communities of under 5000 people that are rural and socio-economically disadvantaged already. A significant proportion of the people in these communities are Maori and as we said these communities are widely distributed throughout New Zealand. 
I am very aware too that a large number of rural schools will be affected by this legislation. The Ministry of Education will need to ensure that compliance occurs in these areas. Children need clean drinking-water particularly if we are to encourage the message that water is the beverage of choice. If there is to be any action on the obesity challenges we face in New Zealand then provision of a drink that is safe and wholesome is surely the very first step and we should encourage children to drink water rather than the fizzy alternatives which we all agree are not the most healthy. 
 We are very pleased to see that there is to be a staggered process for the implementation of the new standard. That will assist those communities greatly. The timetable is laid out very clearly in the bill and will provide a very good guide for all of those communities affected. We note too that a drinking-water assistance programme is to run parallel to this legislation. That will assist these communities. We are very aware that clean drinking-water is an absolute requirement and a strategy to ensure that it occurs is essential. We know that our drinking-water law is virtually unchanged from the UK public legislation of the 1870s when water was untreated and sourced directly from unprotected streams and wells. All legislation needs to be updated to reflect the changing times we live in. The health and safety of people are paramount and we all need clean safe and wholesome drinking-water so New Zealand First supports this bill.