Dangers lurking in Piha pond | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

Louts throw glass and rubbish into a favourite swimming hole - and beachgoers feel the pain, reports Debrin Foxcroft.

Diane Smith is angry, and she wants you to know about it. A swim in Piha Lagoon left the Kelston resident with stitches to her arm and big toe. The emergency room doctor told her if the cut on her arm were any deeper it could have caused nerve damage.

She is now demanding that Waitakere City Council clean up the lagoon and make it a child-friendly spot away from the famous, sometimes treacherous, waves of the main beach at Piha.

"If they cleaned up the lagoon it would take the pressure off the main beach,'' she says. "I was swimming with family and I had already removed a log with a spike.

"The glass, the debris and rubbish thrown into the lagoon is a danger to kids.''

Mrs Smith was cut while swimming  just behind the main beach. Her family chose to swim there because it seemed to be the safer option for the younger children, away from Piha's big surf.

She doesn't know exactly when she was cut but, when she left the water, she was bleeding. As well as cuts on her arm and leg, which required nine stitches, Mrs Smith suffered smaller cuts on her hands. "The cuts were clean, with no jagged edges. The doctor says it was glass,'' she says. "I came out of the water and was covered in blood.''

Mrs Smith has grand ideas for the lagoon area such as changing rooms and a major clean-up, but her main concern is for children who play in the calm water. Piha Coastcare trustee Bobbie Carroll says the best thing people can do in such circumstances, is to contact the council. A ranger will be sent either to remove the debris or to ensure council
officers deal with it.

"I've not heard of this sort of thing in the lagoon before. It's very rare. I wouldn't hesitate to send my 10-year-old granddaughter down to swim in there any day.''

Lisah Henry, the council's public affairs spokesperson, says there are no records of complaints about litter or glass in Piha Lagoon this summer. But, she says, the council is responsible for the area up to the mean, low water, spring tide mark, the water's lowest point during spring tides.

"This includes the reserve area and the foreshore. Beyond that mark is the responsibility of the Auckland Regional Council. ARC would generally respond if debris in the water posed a navigational hazard.''

Miss Henry says the council makes every effort to keep the area clean of litter, but there are no plans to clean out the lagoon.