Our green facade
BY LANE NICHOLSI've swum in the Ganges River.
As I bathed in the tepid muck - fouled with indescribable human excrement, animal poo and toxic industrial waste - dead bodies floated past me in the water.
I've already detailed how the spiritual "head under three times" experience - which left me with a nasty case of amoebic dysentery and at least one pair of badly soiled undies - still rates as the standout highlight of my short but action-packed life.
But if dunking your head in a manky cesspit of polluted filth is something that smokes your tyres, then look no further than the good old Manawatu.
That's right. New research by a credible marine research outfit has rated our own scenic Manawatu River as the most fouled waterway in the entire Western world.
In fact it's so badly polluted as a result of sewage discharges, nitrogen runoff from farms and industrial waste being tipped into the river's snaking path, it's twice as bad as the next worst site - a river in Berlin sampled just below a sewage outfall.
As if living in Palmerston North wasn't bad enough - things just got a whole lot worse.
The problem, it seems, is mostly farm fertiliser and animal waste leaching into the water. There have also been illegal spills of partially-treated sewage, tampons and toilet paper.
Combine this with up to 75,000 cubic metres of (council-consented) treated sewage and industrial waste discharges per day, and the Manawatu is one sick little fish.
"At the high levels, you virtually have to get some in your mouth and you'll get sick," a Massey University ecologist admitted this week.
And here we are - this tiny isolated nation, hidden below the radar of international pollution, pristine and perfect with our fresh air and wildlife, our stunning forests and mountains and lakes.
Well that's what the tourist brochures say.
They forget to mention the toxic cleanup underway in Petone's own Waiwhetu Stream to purge this sick waterway of numerous tonnes of heavy metals, pesticides and chemicals - the legacy of years of unchecked industrial contamination.
Nor do they mention our punch-above-our-weight greenhouse gas emissions polluting the atmosphere from cars, coal-fired power stations and rampant sheep flatulence.
Let's face it - we're not as green as we like to make out.
And hot on the heels of these disturbing findings in the Manawatu is a Health Ministry report showing hundreds of thousands of us are being exposed to faecal contaminants in our drinking water supplies, plus the odd case of cancer-causing chemicals.
Apparently drinking water in many rural schools and hospitals is fraught with risk, as it fails minimum standards, with unsafe levels of bacteria and heavy metals.
It's not like we live in some backwater village of the Sudan where our only water well is so badly polluted it has become undrinkable - is it?
Perhaps we're not quite as First World as we thought.
Maybe it's the legacy of a small nation without the money to invest in decent infrastructure - or maybe we're just lazy.
But I reckon we'd better clean up our act. Otherwise the clean green image we market so successfully overseas to promote exports and tourism will be revealed as nothing more than a big fat environmental fraud.
Then we'll all be up the river without a paddle.
So what do you think? Aotearoa - land of pristine beauty or toilet bowl of the South Pacific?
- © Fairfax NZ News
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I came from a rural school and also was raised on a farm with an unfiltered water supply from a stream. When we went to Cambodia last year I had the constitution of an Ox, while my travelling companions from the city spent most of their sightseeing searching for a toilet. A little bacteria in your potable water is nothing to get hysterical about, it depends how delicate you are. And I'm sure that to the tourists from the Ukraine or India still view the NZ landscape as pristine.
Interesting article on same topic published in the guardian the other week
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/nov/12/new-zealand-greenwash
The Manawatu Council can be thanked for selling dumping rights to big businesses, fouling the water. Yes I am sure illegal dumping is a problem, but not as much as the legal stuff. It is only making headlines now because we have been shamed on an international level. Manawatu might be a pooh-hole (I know I grew up there) but the rest of the country is going to catch up. While I am not on the "carbon counting, green guilt trip" that some are on, there is a thing called social responsibility. I went home to NZ last year and was disguted by the amount of trash on the side of the roads that people just fling out their window. Grow up NZ. The world has such high veiws of the country but are starting to open their eyes to our dirty little secrets.
Totally different subject but.. does anyone get pissed off when someone reads the magazine YOU purchased before YOU get to thumb through the contents? Drives me bonkers I have to go buy a new one just so I can be the first to read it!
"- dead bodies floated past me in the water."
And that's just the ones who were alive when they stepped into the river a few minutes earlier.
NZ is a toilet. We are pushing a fake environmental paradise while fouling it with chemicals and s***. Most rivers and lakes that were clear and pristine when we were young are now algae clogged and fetid.
Nitrogen run-off from dairy farming operations is the worst of it. Fonterrorist should be charged with crimes against humanity for it.
I see what you did there. On a more serious note - yes it is pretty shocking. WE need to clean it up. Is it just me or has the dairy boom almost universally tainted most of our waterways? Nice work team.
The interesting thing about the article link posted by Cat is they are ripping on NZ for having a measly number for what emmissions they plan to cut... at least they are being honest. Here in the US we are paying lip service. Noone is going to change their lives drastically. Look at Obama's cash for clunkers programme. All the traded in cars went to LANDFILLS. Gotta give NZ for being truthful at least.
@ paul - you cant have travelled much - NZ can not be compared as a tolilet on the international scale at all... in fact, that is just a silly comment.
Secondly - why should Fonterra be charged with crimes against humanity? or was that said to be funny? another silly, pointless comment - unless of course you are a Vegan, who doesn't go near dairy products.
You have any solutions? or just silly comments with no merit?
We do need to do a lot to clean it up, especially litter and graffiti which make it "look" disgusting.
I went to one of the Loyalty Islands, off New Caledonia a few years back which I assumed would be stunning. There was rubbish EVERYWHERE which put a whole downer on the place. I would hate for NZ to be viewed that way also.
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Ah we all knew Palmerston North was full of crap!!