Christchurch woman Vickie Walker says the Bromley plant stench has caused her significant health issues.
Christchurch residents confronted council officials last year over pungent and rotten smells, which are expected to waft across the city for years.
A fire destroyed two filters at the city’s wastewater treatment plant in November 2021, leaving human waste to rot and a strong stench lingering.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Walker said her health has "never been worse".
"I've had pneumonia this year, I've had a lung infection, not long ago I got over that and now the doctors say I have asthma, I get this cough and I cough until I'm nearly sick and on top of that I've now got shingles.
"I'm not very well, the worst I've ever been in my whole life and I never have lung infections, I never get sick so this is really taking me down."
Walker said she's had "meetings after meetings after meetings" with the council but nothing ever comes of it.
"It's like a rinse and repeat where they tell us 'we're very sorry that you're getting this and we're trying to do this and this'."
"It's very frustrating having to live here and be unwell, you know we deserve to be looked after, we've been through a hell of a lot on this side of town.
"The earthquakes, the massacre, and the wastewater plant disaster that's still not fixed, it's dragging us all down and making us all sick."
Asked if she has considered moving, Walker broke down in tears saying it would be too much stress to uplift her life after 25 years in the area.
"And who would want to buy a smelly home."
She said locals are going to stand their ground, staging a sit in at the council.
"If they don't close this plant, we're gonna stay there, they can take us away, they can get the police in but we're going to stay.
"We're going to make it known that we can't take it anymore."
Walker and other locals have a meeting with the council set for June 21.
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