Small town's 'pioneering' plan for mortuary waste

For years, Wairoa iwi have campaigned to stop the discharge of mortuary waste into the town’s wastewater system.

By Linda Hall of Local Democracy Reporting

They argue that despite the practice having been widespread throughout New Zealand since the 19th-century European settlement, it is culturally unacceptable.

Almost everywhere in New Zealand, mortuary waste generated during embalming processes – including embalming fluids, cleaning liquids and the blood of dead people – is discharged into the public wastewater network.

In Wairoa, that means it sometimes goes straight into the awa that flows through and defines the town, the Wairoa River.

The waste – locally, around 200L is generated per week – is typically treated and then discharged about 150m offshore from the Wairoa estuary during night-time outgoing tides.

But during heavy rain, which has become increasingly common in recent years in the northern Hawke’s Bay town, its wastewater system has overflowed directly into the Wairoa River.

In response, the Wairoa District Council has been working towards a separation process.

Mayor Craig Little said the three-stage approach will capture mortuary waste at source to be separated, transported to the cemetery, and discharged to land.

Wairoa aimed to be the first council in New Zealand to achieve this, with the project under development and expected to be operational before the end of June.

It has been working on the separation process for several years, including a legislative shift in 2022 listing mortuary waste as a prohibited waste in its bylaw.

Little said, internationally and nationally, there was a significant shift in mortuary waste disposal practices.

"Wairoa is pioneering change with our goal to have mortuary waste separated and disposed of through a specialised land-based disposal system," Little said.

"This is a truly collaborative project where the Council has listened to the community and worked with them towards the desired outcome."

Little said from an environmental taiao perspective, the change was significant.

"Wairoa is leading the way with this transformation, which is the result of a co-lab partnership where we have all worked together to achieve this result."

It has been funded through the Central Government’s Better Off funding, alongside community engagement, including a Māori wastewater Working Party with input from local stakeholders, a Body Representing Māori (BRM) and students from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu o Te Wairoa.

Wairoa’s BRM chairwoman and Hawke’s Bay Regional councillor Michelle Mcllroy said the project was fantastic for Wairoa.

"It’s all about making the water cleaner and the entire community backed us up," she said.

"We had significant cultural concerns with the dead entering our wastewater, then the moana and awa, the same place our community fish and gather kai – it’s culturally abhorrent."

She said when someone drowned, a rāhui — a Māori customary practice grounded in tikanga and kaitiakitanga — was put in place, creating a temporary restriction on accessing a specific area or harvesting resources.

"This practice would need a permanent rāhui."

She said it was fantastic for Wairoa and she took her hat off to the council and everyone involved in making it possible.

Little said the project has been undertaken by council staff and made possible through contracting local people.

"I extend a big thank you to everyone who has been involved.

"There is no blueprint for what we are doing; we are the first cab off the rank, so there are a lot of unknowns."

The project will see mortuary waste fully contained onsite in a purpose-built tank at Pickering Funeral Services.

The tank will be transported to a specific site at the Wairoa Cemetery and discharged safely onto land through an in-ground layered discharge process similar to an underground effluent field.

The layered filtration system is designed to remove contaminants through natural soil filtration before final discharge into the surrounding disposal field.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.