It was good of The Gisborne Herald to have a story on the GDC water monitoring information being available.

It was less good to have a photo of Santa on the Rere Rockslide, where the E. coli testing on December 10 showed the river polluted at a level nearly eight times the level safe for swimming!

Given its overall status as unsafe for swimming, the only explanation for the rockslide's public access and ongoing use in regional tourism promotion must be a callous disregard by the council for public health, in favour of indirect economic opportunities for tourism operators and the farmers responsible for continuing pollution of the awa.

Manu Caddie

Ruatoria