Central Hawke s Bay Mayor Alex Walker at the Waipawa wastewater plant. (File pic)
A small council in Hawke’s Bay, home to just 15,000 people, has taken the bold move to spend $68.5 million on removing wastewater from rivers over the next 15 years. For more than a decade Central Hawke’s Bay District Council has been plagued by wastewater issues at its sewer plants at Waipawa, Waipukurau and Ōtāne, and the resultant pollution of the Tukituki and Waipawa Rivers. A $10m project to treat wastewater through “floating wetlands” in 2013-2017 proved to be a costly failure, and the council was subsequently prosecuted by Hawke s Bay Regional Council for unlawful discharges to the rivers.