- EDITORIAL -
LAST Thursday’s water boil alert was a crock of shit.
Frog shit, that is. And not even a big crock - just a little one.
The community was warned by the Department of Health not to drink the water, cook with it or clean their teeth unless it had been boiled.
The malarkey lasted for three days during which time the bottled water companies did so well out of panicked locals it was enough to set them sailing right through the global financial crisis.
The official word was that E.coli bacteria had been detected in our water supply and the Power and Water Corporation set about dumping so much chlorine into the system, the water running from our taps was probably transformed into a chemical weapon.
It was Ganges River-inspired images of raw sewerage and dead bodies bobbing up and down at the One Tank Hill reservoir that drove residents to strictly follow the Government’s orders and the alarm gathered momentum at the speed of light.
Interestingly, the Department of Health was unable to identify the source of that pesky Escherichia coli bug, claiming it was “not possible to categorically determine the source.”
At least that ruled out dead cows floating in the storage tanks.
DHF Environmental Health Senior Policy Officer, Karen Beirne, said a water sample returned an E.coli count of 15 in 100 millilitres.
That appears to be from one sample although there are a number of sample faucets in the town area.
Ms Beirne did not explain why this was the first time in Tennant Creek’s 46 year history of reticulated water that such an alert had been issued other than to say each case needed to be assessed against a risk framework.
(That is, of course, apart from a 2002 incident when New Year’s Eve revellers climbed up on to the water tank and, foolishly, removed the lid. They also spilt their pre-mixed rum and Coke, prompting fear of possible sabotage by terrorists in a post 9/11-shaken world.)
E.coli in the water supply can only be caused by faecal contamination, so what would have been the source?
According to those in the know - most likely frogs.
And just how did frogs get into the water supply?
The ancient bores from which we source our water feature a natural and highly efficient filtration system so the water is perfectly clean, despite the high levels of dissolved solids which create a milky taste and make our bathrooms hard to clean.
Therefore it had to be via a breakdown in Power and Water’s infrastructure - old and dodgy pipes and fittings.
Alternatively, the test sample may have been contaminated meaning there was never anything wrong with the water anyway. After all, no one was reported as suffering from illness after drinking the water.
When the NT Government attempted to introduce continuous chlorination into the Tennant Creek water supply in 2002, outraged residents refused.
A referendum in 2004 returned a vote of 80 per cent against the proposal and the Government agreed to hand-chlorinate only when required.
Last year water quality tests failed three times and 13 times the previous year. No water boil alerts were issued.
Why this time?
It is possible the NT Government is scaremongering, peddling paranoia, ahead of a new push to drag Tennant Creek in line with other towns and cities where the water supply is constantly chlorinated.
Chlorine is a poison and even though it dissolves in water, its interaction with organic matter produces dangerous and carcinogenic halogenated by-products.
There are several safe and environmentally-friendly options to keep drinking water supplies free of harmful bacteria.
About three years ago tenders were called for the installation of an ultra-violet radiation sterilisation unit in Tennant Creek which is one of the safe water treatment alternatives to chlorination.
However there’s still no sign of it, apparently because the estimated cost of the system was ten times the price of automated chlorination.
See? The NT Government does have plans for continuous chlorination in Tennant Creek! The water boil alert was fallacious.
An alarmist ruse, an attempt to strike fear into our hearts and have us begging for chlorinated water.
Good try, but not everyone fell for it.
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