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| August 2002 |
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Keeping our water clean
Christchurch
Keeping our The city’s water is pure and does not normally
need any treatment and City Council surveys
consistently show that people strongly support
keeping it that way. The City Council gets the water from artesian
wells under the city and uses a system of
reservoirs, tanks and pumping stations to maintain
the delivery and pressure. Sometimes, after work has been done on a part
of the system like the inside of a reservoir, the
drinking water needs to be sterilised by
chlorination for a short time. The reason for this
is to kill any harmful bacteria that may have entered
the reservoir or pipe while it was being worked on. This is done by adding about one part per
million (ppm) of chlorine to the water in the
affected area. New Zealand health guidelines
allow the use of up to 3ppm of chlorine. If this happens in your area, you may notice a
chlorine taste. Generally, only one dose of
chlorine is needed and, with normal water use,
the chlorine content disappears after a few days.
This limited use of chlorination is an important
way of maintaining the health of our water supply. It is essential that we protect our water supply to
avoid the need for total chlorination of the entire
City supply. |