Greenpeace is conducting free drop-in water testing days in Ashburton and Temuka this coming weekend to enable households to check their bore water for nitrate contamination.

10am - 2pm, Saturday 10th July at Mid Canterbury Community House, 44 Cass St, Ashburton

10am - 2pm, Sunday 11th July at Alpine Energy Community Centre, Fergusson Drive, Temuka

Greenpeace is running the testing in conjunction with the Federation of Freshwater Anglers.

This is the third and fourth day of testing run by Greenpeace, with previous testing held in May at Dunsandel and Woodend in Canterbury. Results from these earlier testing days can be found here.

Earlier this week, leading environmental NGOs called for the Government to lower the limit for nitrate in both drinking water and freshwater to under one milligram per litre.

The major causes of nitrate pollution are a huge increase in dairy cows and synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use since 1990.

Greenpeace is supporting calls from medical experts to take a precautionary approach, and is asking the Government to lower the limit for nitrate contamination in water from 11.3mg/L to 0.87mg/L in line with international research linking nitrate contamination to bowel cancer and adverse birth outcomes.

Greenpeace is continuing its push for the Government to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser as part of the suite of actions needed to reduce nitrate contamination of water.

© Scoop Media