The contractor of the new water mains system for some Cook Islands villages says the government needs to crack down on the use of water tanks attached to water mains.
Ben Parakoti says the water tanks were introduced to supply water in times of drought, using rainwater caught from the rooves of houses, but many tanks are attached to the water mains and put too much pressure on the system.
He says the purpose of the water tanks is not for them to be filled from the mains.
Ben Parakoti says there is very little policing of these matters in the Cook Islands and even if it was outlawed, it would be difficult to stop people from doing it.
"I would remove everybody from the mains, with the water tanks, and have that as a backup system to the normal one of persons being connected to the mains. And at the same time it is quite difficult to police these things because people do their own thing over here."
Ben Parakoti.
