It took several days for signs to go up along the Manawatū River advising a rāhui was in place after a young girl and the woman who tried to save her drowned.
Iwi put the rāhui in place on December 29 after 11-year-old Blae Ler Paw and 27-year-old Mu Mu went missing in the water at Ahimate.
With the rāhui in place, swimming in the river is prohibited as it is seen as contaminated.
Blae had been swept away by the current and Mu Mu went in to save her.
Both Blae and Mu Mu were Karen refugees from Myanmar. Blae had been in New Zealand for just two years.
Mu Mu leaves behind a husband and eight-month-old son.
Blae’s body was found on New Year’s Eve, while a body believed to be Mu Mu’s was found on Sunday when searchers recovered the bodies of two men who had gone swimming in the river near Awapuni.
The men had gone swimming despite the rāhui being in place. It also did not stop people from entering the river on Monday.
Locals 1News spoke to said they were concerned about the length of time it took for warnings to be put in place.
“A lot of people that were here yesterday might not have even known about the first two drownings, so they’d be shocked,” resident Wayne Brannigan said.
Aleisha Rutherford, Palmerston North’s deputy mayor, said: “Police were lead agency and we put signs up when they advised us to.”
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