While the sun has come out in Auckland today, beachgoers hoping to go for a dip are being warned to avoid swimming in some popular Auckland beaches after an overflow of sewage.
The Auckland Council website Safeswim, which monitors water quality, has warned the public against swimming in many of the city's beaches due to a high risk of illness.
Murray's Bay, Milford and Narrow Neck in the North Shore have been deemed unsafe to swim in by Safeswim after wastewater overflows were detected.
Wastewater overflows are more common in wet weather and with recent rain lashing the North Island, sewage can spill out of gully traps, manholes, engineered overflow points or pump stations and back into the sea.
These wastewater overflows have a significantly higher public health risk than general stormwater contamination.
St Heliers, Okahu Bay and Maraetai in Auckland's eastern suburbs also have swimming warnings.
"Safeswim water quality models predict that levels of Faecal Indicator Bacteria breach national guidelines for swimming," Safeswim said of these beaches.
The Safeswim map uses water droplet icons to separate 'low-risk' beaches and 'high-risk' beaches - with black being the most high-risk.
Last week, the majority of Auckland beaches were hit with unsafe levels of faecal indicator bacteria that breached national guidelines for swimming.
Watercare has multiple projects underway to reduce overflows, including expanding the wastewater network with projects such as the Central Interceptor pipeline, and building storage tanks to hold excess flows that would overload the network during heavy rain.
