Te Mato Vai Project Management Unit (PMU) and Te Mato Vai contractor McConnell Dowell Constructers (Offshore) Limited are concerned that some community members believe chemicals are currently being used for treatment of the public water supply and/or Te Mato Vai construction activities.
We have received an anonymous complaint asserting that the Te Mato Vai project is discharging chlorine into streams in Rarotonga. There are no grounds to this complaint. We can confirm that we are not using any chemicals to treat the water at Te Mato Vai work sites. Rarotonga’s water supply and the pipe network it runs through are both still untreated.
Te Mato Vai PMU Deputy Project Manager Tangianau Taoro says: “The new filtration and treatment works, including any new trunk mains being constructed as part of Te Mato Vai, will not be operating until after the new network and intake site treatment plants are fully completed. In the meantime, these new works are isolated from (not connected to) the old system. In other words, the water you are receiving from the tap now is being delivered through the same old pipes and is still untreated.”
The community will be informed before any water treatment or pipe disinfection involving the use of chemicals occurs, and when the new filtration and treatment system is connected.
ENDS