Welcome to the Midnight
Collective Broadsheet 162
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
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| Bridge over Wharemauku creek at back of airport |
The news that a Māori rāhui or prohibition has
been placed on the Wharemauku creek is a sobering reminder of how quickly a
local waterway can become toxic. It has been placed by local Iwi to prevent the
gathering of food (watercress, whitebait, eels etc) after the discovery of
campylobacter in the stream.
(note on rāhui - to put in place a temporary ritual prohibition - traditionally a rāhui was placed on an area, resource or stretch of water as a conservation measure or as a means of social and political control. A rāhui is a device for separating people from tapu things. After an agreed lapse of time, the rāhui is lifted.)
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| Looking up towards the centre of town |
This is the bug that brought Havelock North to
its knees in 2016 so it is good news to find our Iwi closely involved in
monitoring the health of our water and nipping a possible epidemic in the bud.
The immediate source of the pollution has yet
to be determined but local signage appears to link it to human sewerage
spilling from illegally connected pipes. The problem is exacerbated with the
opening up of the Wharemauku into the flood plain areas around the expressway,
so the pollution will be spreading into a much wider area.
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| Flood plain area west of expressway |
The drain that runs along the back of this area
appears also to be affected. A considerable
stench was coming from this section that eventually drains into the Wharemauku at
the back of the airport.
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| Drain 7 |
Not only humans can be infected.
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| White faced heron near Wharemauku |
Animals get
sick too, and here is film of a white faced heron seen down here
yesterday, feeding in the centre of what may be a polluted area…
Track we were listening to
while posting this? Well, with the US beginning to pull itself together, how could
we go wrong with the incomparable Ella’s happiness..
A million years it seems
Have gone by since we shared our dreams
But I'll hold you again
There'll be no blue memories then…
We've sent this out in red because that's what we are over here!!!
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