Recommendation 19
a. Urgently take steps to implement the recommendations of the Havelock North Stagetwo Inquiry Report, including making the required legislative and regulatory changes and
allocating sufficient resources to improving access to safe drinking water in New Zealand.
b. Ensure that reforms to support the access to safe drinking water are consistent with the
government’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 6 and international human
rights standards, including the Committee’s General Comment No. 15 (2002) on the right
to water and the Special Rapporteur on the human right to drinking water’s criteria
against which to assess good practice relating to access to safe drinking water.
c. Develop systematic data collection and reporting procedures on water quality in order
to effectively inform relevant policies and the application of the right to access safe
drinking water.
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery
ICESCR Art: 12
SDGs: 1 | 11
104.
The Committee recommended at New Zealand’s last review that the government “adopt
a human rights approach to reconstruction efforts, ensuring thereby appropriate
consideration to availability, affordability and adequacy of housing, including for
temporary housing”.
105.
The 2010-11 earthquakes in Canterbury and the 2016 earthquakes in Kaikoura and
corresponding recovery efforts have exposed a number of shortcomings in protecting the
right to housing in New Zealand.142 Secondary stressors relating to unresolved insurance
claims, faulty repairs and land compensation continue to have an ongoing impact on the
mental health and wellbeing of people, in particular young people and children.
Vulnerable people have been identified and there has been some good work in this area
but problems remain around access to remedy and effective dispute resolution
mechanisms.
106.
The State has acknowledged that more than 3000 claims to the Earthquake Commission
(“EQC”) remain outstanding. Concurrently, EQC has received over 8000 callbacks relating
largely to missed damage or incorrect scope, or failure of repair strategy, for homes in its
managed repair program. Approximately 520 claims are in litigation.
34