Letter: $100 million water system ‘failing to function’

Dear Editor: Are we facing a water crisis? Or are we suffering the consequences of foolish decisions made during the crisis?

Stupid decision in crisis No.1 must be blamed on the engineers who designed the $100 million system to supply water to fewer homes on Rarotonga. TTV head Tereapii Timoti explained how the system fills from the bottom and then pressure pushes upwards. The current system is designed to supply water 15 metres lower than the old system. TMV built the system to design.

Stupid decisions in crisis 2 The blame must go to those who ignored the much hyped idea before a dollar was invested in TMV that for a fraction of the cost of the now defunct system, every home on Rarotonga could have a new roof, rain gutters, 20,000 litres of water storage and individual UV treatment. Leaving the old water system (and its flaws) as is for our farmers to use as they please.

Stupid decisions in crisis 3 The blame must go to the TMV who are now telling us that they have no idea how much water is consumed by the large resorts because no meters are installed. Currently a lot of money is spent installing meters on domestic homes while the relatively small amount needed to measure the water that is now free to flush away tourists’ excrement is not controlled.

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PM must address police manpower crisis

Kia Orana. A week ago, the Prime Minister and Minister of Police admitted in passing that the Cook Islands Police Service was short of about 30-40 officers. Yet, instead of addressing this, they announced that the New Zealand Police would come on board to upskill our existing force… What an amazing sidestep! Jonah Lomu would be proud!

Mr Prime Minister, you can upgrade skills all you want, but realistically, if you are 30-40 people short of your workforce, the remaining officers will not be able to cope. This has become increasingly apparent in recent years (certainly during your tenure as Police Minister) with many headlines highlighting burglaries, domestic violence, boy races etc. The Police Service is working hard to combat crime, violence and general misconduct and obviously cannot be present everywhere on the island at once. But imagine the difference an extra 30-40 officers would make if there were visible police officers on village streets, main roads, around town, in and around business areas and in public view.

There seems to be absolutely no difficulty in hiring more and more senior/highly paid personnel in the Ministry of Personnel, Foreign Affairs, other ministries and the Secret Service. So why is it so difficult to recruit more police officers? Go ahead, Mr. Prime Minister, it’s your responsibility – get more people into the police force and fix these problems.