Seventy million litres of raw sewage a day have been flowing into Wellington's beaches after a catastrophic failure at the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Around 70 percent of the plant has been inundated with wastewater, in what is quite possibly the worst sewage spill New Zealand has had, but it's not the first.
What is the ecological impact of such spills and how does Wellington’s compare to the sewage spilling into the sea in the rest of the world?
University of Sydney wastewater engineering expert Professor Stuart Khan joins Paddy to explain.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
