Half-a-dozen popular beaches across Auckland remain contaminated by sewage leaks, and unfit to swim, after heavy rain overloaded wastewater systems early this week.
The popular St Heliers Beach in Auckland's east is one of six with an active water quality alert on council's Safeswim online monitoring system.
Most of the prohibited beaches are along the south coast of Waitemata Harbour, directly east and west of Auckland's CBD.
On Monday this week, an unusually high 12 beaches in Auckland had water quality alerts on Safeswim's website including the very busy Mission Bay, and Mairangi Bay beaches.
However, these two popular Auckland beaches have now been cleared as safe to swim.
The description of the conditions on the Safeswim website is: "Real time sensors or manual inspections of the wastewater (sewage) network have detected wastewater overflows affecting swimming spots – swimming is not advised."
Contamination of Auckland's beaches does regularly occur following large storms when overflowing storm water seeps into the city's sewerage system.
Auckland Council typically discourages people from swimming in the city's beaches for 48 hours following a major storm event.
The six Auckland beaches with water quality alerts are:
- Herne Bay
- Home Bay
- Okahu Bay
- Point England
- St Heliers
- St Mary's Bay
To keep up to date with the water quality of Auckland beaches visit Auckland Council's Safeswim website .
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