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How interested are you in the quality of your drinking water?

For example, would you like to be able to look up your address and get credible, reliable information from an official source about the nitrate levels in the water coming through your taps?

I would. Because I just don’t know whether to believe some of the alarming stuff that’s been coming out of Greenpeace this week about the nitrate situation or not.

Let’s bring in Associate Professor Tim Chambers from the University of Canterbury - who is saying today that it is a government responsibility to provide up-to-date information on nitrates in the water.

He’s been involved in a large study looking into the link between nitrates and premature births, which has compared birth records with nitrate levels in drinking water supplies where these kids have been born.

He can’t say too much about the findings because they’re still being peer-reviewed. But he is saying that we deserve to know more.

He says: “We have advocated for this for a long time. Lots of other countries do this. You can type in your address and it takes you to the supply you’re on and the latest readings.”

I think this would be a brilliant thing to do here. In fact, I think it’s an essential thing to do here with all the noise - and, potentially, exaggeration - that’s coming from Greenpeace.

Or is it an exaggeration? If it is exaggerated, then we deserve better access to information.

Here’s one example of what Greenpeace has been saying this week. It says it’s tested 110 water samples and has found that the Darfield water supply is above the levels that are considered safe for pregnant women.

“Absolutely unacceptable,” is what one of its campaigners is saying about that.

If it’s true, I’d agree. But I heard about someone who had their water tested by an independent lab and it was fine. But their neighbour had Greenpeace test theirs and the levels were through the roof, apparently.

This is why I think the Government and councils are obliged to give us free and open access to data. Because we are at risk of being unnecessarily spooked by scaremongering by the likes of Greenpeace. At the same time, we’re also at risk of being misled by councils telling us that everything’s fine and there’s nothing to see here.

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