Dimensión bilateral de las relaciones Brasil-UE

As ratepayers and business owners, many respondents commented on their expectations about how councils would be managing the business and general community’s water supply.

A local publican provided an overview of what business owners expected from the councils: We pay our rates for water to be clean. My expectation is born out of city and regional councils taking rates off us to say they’re going to…look after the environment…you have an expectation ‘well I paid you guys to do that, you said you were going to do that, why can’t I expect you to have done that?’ And so as a member of the community who pays those rates, makes those contributions and [supports] all these councils and boards that are meant to manage [water] for us, I have every expectation to go to the tap, turn it on and it [is] fine to drink. [T14]

While the contamination caused significant and sometimes detrimental effects to the health of over 5,000 residents in Havelock North, they were all also affected financially. Some were affected by

reduced salary/wages and all by having to purchase uncontaminated water and additional medicines for relief and cure of their illnesses.

Businesses were also financially impacted by something they had no control over. Despite always having to adhere to their business’ strict health and safety guidelines, they felt the council had not managed their municipal health and safety responsibilities. This being the case, many business owners wondered why they were not compensated for the financial deficit they found themselves in over the long-term, not just during the initial two to three weeks.

Food producer (T18) was angry “with the fact that there are businesses in this community that have taken significant financial hits for something that was totally out of their control. That they had no ability to be insured to protect themselves against it, in spite of the fact that I’ve got [insurance] cover for f…… everything.”

[While] the council were very good to us to a degree – we got some help – it really pisses me off. I don’t think that I should be paying for water that could potentially destroy my business and not be fully compensated for it, and I wasn’t. I shouldn’t be $50,000 in debt. [T18]

Food retailer (T5) asserted,

The other thing we’re really pissed off about is they have very strict health and safety parameters that we must follow, and we do…[last inspection] they’d never seen such a competent job…if that [bacteria] had come from our kitchen we’d be shut down. But no it’s come from somewhere else but we have to carry the brunt of it… There’s no [accountability], we would be just laughed at if we went to council and said, “Actually could you replace all our losses?” [T5]

In terms of losses, some of the interviewed business owners did submit claims to the council, although they spoke about the claim forms being very onerous, needing their accountant to assist and taking up considerable time to complete. Others did not attempt the forms because they were too long and arduous. “We all got sent, if we wanted, [forms] about that thick [indicates two inches], I didn’t do it… And I think a lot of people…once they saw the paperwork they had to fill out, they thought [no]” (T6). Hospitality general manager T6 noted that business owners had to ‘fork out’ on their own for staff that got sick, then they had to close the businesses.

[The councils] should’ve [declared an emergency] and then everyone’s insurance would’ve kicked in. Because if you close [your business] yourself you’re not covered by insurance. I mean why did they close the schools in the end? They should’ve closed the businesses. [T6]

Those businesses that did submit a claim voiced their disappointment at not seeking compensation over a longer time period. Respondent T5 pointed out that if she went back to council late in 2017 to say council had caused the contamination, council would say, “yeah but we gave you a grant…[But] I’d like to go back with the figures now and say ‘actually look at these [now], what are you going to do?’” Retailer T1 spoke about the fact that ratepayers and business owners rely on the councils to supply potable water. “The water supply is generally something that we cannot affect ourselves; we generally give that responsibility over to the Council. There’s nothing, unless we went to bottled water

permanently, which has its own problems…with plastic containers” (T1).

Publican T11 reiterated this when he said, “the council’s got the big decision to make, where are they going to draw [safe water] from? At the end of the day they’re the ones who have been placed in charge of giving us clean drinking water. And obviously they’ve failed, completely.”

A few business owners were magnanimous with their expectations of the councils. Retailer T2 alluded that council “realised they had to up their game,” but he wasn’t “100 percent convinced that they

weren’t doing what they thought was right in the first place. This hasn’t happened to this scale before anywhere else as far as I know. You know, you don’t know what you don’t know, [but] they do know now. I’d be pretty annoyed if it happened again.”

Contrary to most respondents, T8 believed the contamination was a ‘bad luck issue’. He was… Pissed off with all the blame throwers…it’s just one of those things where

something went wrong. It wasn’t an ideal situation. I’m definitely not looking to blame anyone; [not] productive at all…I didn’t think they were negligent. [T8]

He believed that social media’s ‘blame nation’ alienated himself and other people from the issues. Everyone’s on the blame generation, you know all the eco-warriors out there

started thumping the table? ...people who wanted to have a voice on social- media were looking to persecute. But that was never going to fix the problem. It’s a practical issue that needed a practical solution and all this ramping it up and making it emotive, it just doesn’t get anyone anywhere. [T8]