Wellington mayor Andrew Little swims at a beach to reassure residents after a wastewater plant failure pumped raw sewage into the ocean and sprayed homes.

WELLINGTON: The mayor of New Zealand’s capital took a public swim to calm fears after a major wastewater plant failure.

Andrew Little dived into the surf on Wednesday following weeks of raw sewage contaminating Wellington’s south coast.

Millions of litres of sewage have flowed into the ocean since the Moa Point facility broke down on February 4.

The situation worsened last week when a storm sent contaminated sea spray onto coastal homes.

Residents reported a brown, slimy residue coating their properties.

“It’s been disgusting,” resident Roger Young told national broadcaster RNZ.

Another local, Chris from Island Bay, described running a finger through the grime.

“You get these brown marks of this residue that’s on there and that’s certainly not from salt,” he said.

“It’s residue from all that sewage that’s floating up and down the coast.”

The city council had previously warned people not to swim or fish due to the public health risk.

Mayor Little acknowledged a risk remained but said monitoring showed it was now low.

“I do want to be clear, a risk remains but monitoring results so far show that it is low and it’s now up to people to decide how they respond,” Little said.

Wellington Water, which manages the plant, has brought in experts from Australia to diagnose the fault.

The utility said on Wednesday it was still cleaning the plant and that odour was an ongoing concern.

Little said a major fix was required to restore the facility’s operation.

“I want to thank Wellingtonians and local businesses for their patience and understanding,” Little said.

“Today’s progress marks a turning point, but we are far from the end of the journey.”

 The Sun Malaysia