A bit about rainwater tanks

[selchie]

I recall that in the 1960s or so, fluoridation was supposed to be a Commie plot. It didn't do my teeth any harm, and I don't lean too far to the left. Look, Ma, no cavities!

[MotherBear]

NZers drinking water not up to standard
22 March 2006

More than a million New Zealanders are drinking water which is either not up to standard or not being monitored properly, according to a Ministry of Health review released yesterday. The findings were released in the Annual Review of Drinking-Water Quality in New Zealand in 2004. The review assessed the microbiological health risk in water against two criteria: Escherichia coli bacteria and the water born protozoa Cryptosporidium. It also looked at the chemical composition of drinking-water.

During 2004, water supplied to 74 per cent of the New Zealand population complied with the E coli criteria for drinking-water standards, a three per cent improvement when compared to the previous year. There was also a 71 per cent compliance with the cryptosporidium criteria of the standards, which is a seven per cent improvement since 2003. That represents another 120,000 people who have access to good quality drinking water.

However, approximately 1.04 million New Zealanders were supplied during 2004 with water that either failed to comply bacteriologically with the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand 2000 (DWSNZ:2000) or their water was self supplied. The causes of the non-compliance centred for the most part on levels of E coli or a failure by water suppliers to take appropriate action, including monitoring after it had been found. Some took insufficient samples during the year to demonstrate E coli compliance and other water suppliers did not use accredited labs for testing, or supplied water from an unregistered source.

The Ministry of Health's principal public health engineer Paul Prendergast said 1.04 million people did not necessarily receive unsafe drinking-water during 2004 – it simply meant water suppliers did not demonstrate the water was safe. "Most of the non-compliant supplies were from small rural water supplies or domestic supplies that were either not monitored or inadequately monitored," he said.

The review also found that four hospitals or health services that were not connected to municipal drinking-water supplies, failed to comply bacteriologically with the drinking-water standards. Some school drinking-water also needs improvement.

During 2004, 57 per cent of the 640 schools with their own water supplies conducted some bacteriological monitoring, this is a two per cent improvement on 2003. Of the school water supplies monitored, 84 or 13 per cent complied with the bacteriological criteria of the drinking-water standards, a one per cent reduction compared to the previous year.

[selchie]

Oh boy, that's comforting.

Disease threat from roof water, says study
Thursday January 18, 2007

Drinking water collected from home roofs carries a significant risk of illness, according to a five-year study from Massey University.

The survey found that more than half of 560 samples from private dwellings exceeded the minimal standards for contamination and 30 per cent showed evidence of heavy faecal contamination.

"I'm utterly amazed at the number of roof water supplies that fail the New Zealand drinking water standards," said Stan Abbott, a microbiologist at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health.

Roof-collected rainwater consumption was popular because the public believed that rainwater was pure and safe to drink, said Mr Abbott, who is director of the roof water research centre at Massey's Wellington campus.

More here .

This reverts back to a post near the top of the page regarding the quality of drinking water.

Water quality a worry - Nats
NZPA | Wednesday, 31 January 2007

Water quality in New Zealand is a serious worry and not in keeping with the country's clean, green image, according to National's Nick Smith.

The Annual Review of Drinking-Water Quality in New Zealand 2005 released by the Ministry of Health yesterday found a 2 per cent increase in the numbers of people who were supplied with safe drinking-water during 2005 but also highlighted trouble spots.

The report said that nine hospitals and health services were not connected to municipal drinking water supplies and of these three failed to comply with standards. The drinking water supply to the Waiheke Health Trust was contaminated with faeces and in need of urgent improvement.

Dr Smith, national's environment spokesman, said the sick and young were most at risk from bacterial infections so it was unacceptable that facilities serving them failed to comply.

More here .

Hi everyone, I would like to put my twopenneth in about having clean tanks. It's not just 'jippy tummies' that you can get there are many serious water borne viruses about. If you are ill from these they can be very serious. Hepatitis A, is a water borne virus. Bugs in water can also make the young, old and immunosuppressed very il. The old and young can become dehydrated. Last thing you need is some or all of you being ill.
As for bottled water, for the Eco friendly. Did you know that it takes 2 litres of water to make 1 litre of bottled water. You can get jugs with filters on. I think the filters differ as in what they actually filter.
My neice became very ill when she was 3. This was from drinking tap water in the UK. It was a bug I can.t spell, something like, chryptosporidium. Apparently it had got into the resevior that is responsible for our tap water. My brother now only drinks water that has been boiled and filtered.
Sorry to scare anyone but you can't put a price on health.
Missvee