A health warning has been issued after untreated sewage was discharged into waters around Diamond Harbour in Canterbury.
The warning from Health New Zealand covered several areas, including Te Waipapa/Diamond Harbour, Purau Bay, Kaioruru/Church Bay, and Te Wharau/Charteris Bay.
Public Health medicine specialist Dr Imogen Evans said water quality at the affected sites was not suitable for recreational use due to the risk posed by bacteria and other pathogens.
“Water contaminated by human matter may contain a range of disease-causing micro-organisms such as viruses, bacteria and protozoa,” she said.
Members of the public were advised to stay out of the water until further notice and not to collect shellfish from the affected areas.
Environment Canterbury said it was "actively responding" to the wastewater discharge, which came from Christchurch City Council sewerage pipes.
Compliance manager Jennifer Rochford said the amount of sewage discharged was not yet known.
"A visible contamination plume was observed in the harbour earlier. While it has reduced, it continues to move toward the harbour heads with the outgoing tide," she said.
Rochford said Environment Canterbury would work closely with the council once the situation was stabilised to understand "what went wrong and how to prevent a repeat".
Christchurch City Council had since closed the affected pump station.
The discharge comes days after a wastewater incident in Wellington, where a "catastrophic failure" at the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant sent raw sewage into the city’s southern coastline.
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