Source: Greenpeace
This weekend, Greenpeace is conducting free drop-in water testing days to enable Taranaki and Waikato households to check their drinking water for nitrate contamination.
Greenpeace head of campaigns, Amanda Larsson, says “Access to safe healthy drinking water is a fundamental human right, but many rural communities are at risk of high levels of nitrate contamination in their drinking water, which can lead to increased risk of health impacts.”
“We’re providing this free water testing to give rural communities the opportunity to know what’s in their drinking water,” says Larsson.
“All you need to bring is a sample of your tap water, and we can test it for nitrate while you wait. Run your kitchen tap for one minute and fill a clean container with 200 mls of water and bring it along.”
“Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and cow urine from dairy farms are the main sources of nitrate contamination of drinking water,” says Larsson.
“As the dairy industry intensified, the amount of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser being applied to the land grew, and so we’ve seen a corresponding increase in nitrate contamination of rural people’s drinking water over the last thirty years.”
Greenpeace launched its ‘Know Your Nitrate’ map at the end of 2023, which uses both Greenpeace’s own testing results, as well as data from Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA), GNS Science and local councils to make known drinking water nitrate data publically available in map form.
“The Know Your Nitrate map is designed to inform and warn the public of the potential health risks of nitrate in drinking water. It can give you some idea of what contamination levels might be in an area, but people should get their water tested to be sure,” says Larsson.
“No matter where you live, you should be able to safely drink the water coming out of your kitchen tap without worrying that it will make you or your family sick. But for many rural communities, this is now at risk.”
The maximum acceptable value for nitrate-nitrogen in drinking water is 11.3 mg/L, set in the 1950s to prevent Blue Baby Syndrome. Exposure to nitrate levels above this level can prevent the blood from delivering oxygen effectively in the body, posing a risk to young babies fed infant formula made using high nitrate water.
However, more recent studies have linked elevated levels of nitrate in drinking water to increased risks of bowel cancer and preterm birth.
