An American conservationist Erin Brokovich whose courage and victory over a corporate pollutant was made into a top Hollywood film has told a Water NZ industry conference that the water crisis its worsening.
She says people and their communities must stand up and fight if the downward trend is to be stopped and reversed.
The film “Erin Brokovich” released in 2000 told the story of an unemployed single mother who becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handed brings down a Californian power company accused of polluting a city’s water supply. Actress Julia Roberts portrayal of Erin Brokovich won an Oscar.
Now three decades later, 63 years of age and a grandmother of four, Erin says the water situation has “gotten much worse.”
In 1996 her fight won the day when the polluting power company in the town of Hinkley, settled for $500,000.
The town has gone and the polluting power company today owns the land and is under a 100 year clean-up order.
Stand Up and Fight
Now in 2023 she urged people to stand up and fight for water. Earlier in the 2023 Water Industry conference the delegates heard that threats, particularly nitrates from dairy effluent, were still happening.
A consultant Andrew Pearson told a workshop the level of uncertainty about what PFAS substances do to water, and to human health, required taking precautions. In March, the US set what were called “extraordinary new limits” on PFAS in drinking water. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large, complex group of synthetic chemicals that have been used in consumer products around the world since about the 1950s. They are ingredients in various everyday products. For example, PFAS are used to keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware, make clothes and carpets resistant to stains, and create firefighting foam that is more effective. very much stricter than New Zealand guidelines.
The US limits on PFAs were much stricter than New Zealand’s guidelines, said Pearson.
Nitrates
An Otago University senior research fellow Tim Chambers told the conference of increased nitrates, mainly from dairy herds and concern about human health.
A Danish study published in 2018 found a significant increase in bowel cancer when nitrate levels were just 0.87 milligrams per litre of water and a 15 per cent increase at 2.1mg per litre. The current safe level in New Zealand, as mandated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is 11mg per litre.
A new analysis by Otago and Victoria universities of overseas studies, including the Danish study, suggested between 300,000 and 800,000 Kiwis might be exposed to potentially harmful levels of nitrates in drinking water that could lead to an increased chance of developing bowel cancer.
Meanwhile at this year’s Water Industry conference, Erin Brockovich told the audience “we must speak up.”
Sad to say, New Zealand continues to ignore the decline in the ecological health of rivers. That was shown in the leadup to the 2023 election, where the crisis was never mentioned by any party. Yet in 2017 and 2020 election campaigns it was.
Dr Google recalls :- “Labour will lead a nationwide effort to restore our rivers and lakes to a clean, swimmable state, says Leader of the Opposition Jacinda Ardern.
“Clean water is the birth-right of all of us. I want future generations to be able to swim in the local river, just like I did. All our children deserve to inherit swimmable lakes and rivers – and they can, if we commit ourselves as a country to cleaning up our water.”
Words come easy, action does noit.
Quite correct J B Smith. In July this year, it was in newspapers that nitrate levels across Canterbury are increasing, with 40% of wells tested in the Ashburton water zone breaching the maximum national drinking water level.
It is shameful that nitrate levels are causing freshwater aquatic life to decline.
Equally alarming is human health is at stake.
A major Danish study published in 2018 found a significant increase in bowel cancer when nitrate levels were just 0.87 milligrams per litre of water and a 15 per cent increase at 2.1mg per litre.
The current safe level in New Zealand, as mandated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is 11mg per litre.
An analysis by Otago and Victoria universities of overseas studies, including the Danish study, suggested between 300,000 and 800,000 Kiwis might be exposed to potentially harmful levels of nitrates in drinking water that could lead to an increased chance of developing bowel cancer.
Who cares? Politicians don’t seem to.
The National Bowel Screening Programme Clinical Director said in 2020, the South Canterbury region has one of the highest bowel cancer rates in the country with 113 cancers found per 100,000 people, compared to a national average of 65.7.
That is double the national average.
New Zealand’s high bowel cancer rates may be linked to the effects of intensive farming on water supplies, according to Dr Mike Joy. New Zealand has one of the highest bowel cancer rates in the world. Shameful.
Meanwhile a pat on the back for the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers and Dr Peter Trolove with his nitrate testing for exposing in the first place this deplorable state of affairs.
One continually tends to ignore or look away purposely from a number points evident here.
1. I read some very technical scientific terms & mathamaticacal calculationswhich impinge on study & quality of water.The points ignored are that
2.the trend is to hand over water to tribal Iwi ownership in the near future.
3.matauranga maori & tikanga ways of knowing are equal to science & would be equal to or implied better than calculations as seen here.
4. The Araphiti Agency now monitors all decisions made including water,a gateway that must show benefit to maoridom, with power of veto.
5. These are a short breakdown of conflicting concepts that will not enhance water quality.
It is good to speak up but is anyone listening?
Conservation is defined as the prevention of the waste of resources.
Our consumer economy model is based on the increasing exploitation of resources, transforming them into consumer products, using, disposing of and wasting them.
There is constant tension and conflict between respect for our finite natural resources and our desire for constant economic growth.
These two ambitions cannot co-exist.
We can have either on or the other and, when the choice has to be made, it is almost always economic growth.
These important choices are made by a minority of people called THE DECIDERS who have the most influence in our main political parties and governments.
They are the unseen but very powerful influential party members and funders.
They decide which celebrity politicians will be chosen and promoted, and elected to represent and serve them.
The accumulation of authority, wealth and political power consistently and inevitably causes people to overestimate their intelligence, ability and entitlement to decide things for the rest of the people.
This corruption by power also causes the deciders to justify and gain acceptance of their decisions by the use of effective propaganda that convinces the rest of the people that “this is for our own good”.
The deciders appear to be listening to and serving the rest of the people but they cannot because they are too confident of their own omnipotence and superiority.
They invite the rest of the people to “consultation” and to make “submissions” but only accept the information that supports the decisions they have already made.
How did these deciders gain their political authority and power over the rest of the people?
They earned it by joining a party, becoming involved, learning how things worked, contributing time, effort and money, becoming respected and then influential while the rest of the people DID NOT.
The rest of the people could do the same if they cared enough about issues and the future of their country and its people.