Aucklanders swim in polluted water, despite council advice, and many get sick

Tuesday, 17 April 2018

Takapuna Beach was one of five Auckland beaches to be targeted for the SafeSwim survey. It also is one of three beaches in Auckland to have a SafeSwim sign installed.

Beach-goers are much more aware of when Auckland's beaches are unsafe for swimming, but that doesn't stop some from swimming in dirty water and getting sick, a survey reveals.

Auckland Council's SafeSwim website was launched on November 4, providing a three-day forecast of water quality at numerous Auckland beaches.

It aimed to shine a light on water quality issues and encourage swimmers to check before swimming.

Despite initial scepticism, an impact evaluation survey revealed SafeSwim has had a mostly positive response, programme manager Nicholas Vigar said.

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'Results show SafeSwim is providing value to Aucklanders about water quality and putting them in control of choosing where they swim,' Vigar said.

However, the survey also revealed 10 per cent of people ignored a SafeSwim red alert and went swimming anyway. Of those, 23 per cent of people reported getting sick afterwards.

Despite this statistic, Vigar said, overall, awareness and use of SafeSwim had increased.

Key results showed 94 per cent of beach-users rated water quality as important, he said.

Also, there was an increase in awareness that it was sometimes unsafe to swim at Auckland beaches and people were checking water quality prior to swimming.

'I am delighted with these evaluation results that show an increase in awareness about water quality, and that people consider it important,' he said.

Auckland Council's Research and Evaluation Unit (RIMU) used three sources for the survey: beach visitors, online panels and media article analyses.

On-beach surveys questioned 617 beach visitors in February 2018 at Takapuna Beach, Mission Bay, Red Beach, Eastern Beach and Bethells Lagoon.

A number of Auckland beaches were sometimes contaminated with faecal matter, putting water users at risk. At many, contamination was infrequent and temporary.

Causes were wastewater overflows in heavy rain, dry weather system faults, poorly maintained septic systems and effluent from animals, birds, dogs and stock.

Feelings of initial mistrust stemmed primarily from a misunderstanding about how water quality ratings were produced and how often.

However, Safeswim lead and independent environmental scientist Dr Martin Neale went into communities to explain the science behind the programme and quelled the worst of critics.

He showed that SafeSwim ensured much more frequent and intensive sampling of Auckland City's beaches than the previous model did.

Check before you swim safeswim.org.nz.