• Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown criticisedSafeswim after Karanga Plaza Pool was deemed unsafe due to bacteria.
• The $500,000 pool was closed days after opening, following a second red pin warning.
• Former councillor Sandra Coney called the pool a “useless, dangerous, redundant facility” on social media.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is kicking up a stink after the city’s latest pool, affectionately known as “Browny’s Pool”, was declared unsafe for swimming yesterday.

Days after its opening, the Karanga Plaza Pool on the Auckland waterfront received a second red pin on Safeswim, indicating that levels of faecal bacteria or toxic algae bloom exceeded national swimming guidelines.

Brown opened the $500,000 outdoor saltwater pool seven days ago. He shared a video of himself diving into the pool in his board shorts and swimming three laps of the 33m-long swimming lanes.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said the Viaduct's latest attraction was "really nice".

He gave the pool a big thumbs up and said it was only part of his “bigger piece of work” to make the most out of Auckland’s harbours.

After yesterday’s red pin, the mayor said the Safeswim programme is based on computer modelling, “which can mean anything”.

“There needs to be actual on-site testing as well.

“Remember the computer modelling that said 20mm of rain in January 2023 when we actually got 400mm and I got blamed for the flooding,” Brown said.

Council’s Healthy Water general manager Craig McIlroy said daily sampling at Karanga Plaza and other beaches cannot provide real-time information about water quality.

“Results of the sampling tests can take about 48 hours to be returned, and the water quality at Auckland’s beaches can change in much less time,” he said.

Safeswim uses real-time data on rainfall, wind, and other environmental factors to simulate water quality at each beach. The water quality estimates are updated at least every 15 minutes.

“Regular water quality sampling is also an important part of the programme and helps to validate and improve the performance of models. We will continue to sample at Karanga Plaza throughout the summer,” McIlroy said.

The tidal steps leading down to the pool at Karanga Plaza are proving a popular spot for swimming. It has ladder access, a jumping platform, changing facilities, and the water quality is regularly monitored on the council’s Safeswim website.

Lifeguards monitor the pool during peak swimming periods, and it is open during daylight hours over the summer.

Former Auckland councillor Sandra Coney was not surprised the mayor’s “vanity pool at Karanga Plaza is shut days after it opened”.

“He described the pool as ‘doing things better, faster and cheaper’ but now all we have is a useless, dangerous, redundant facility taking up space on the harbour edge.

“This pool was always going to run into problems with pollution,” Coney said on social media, adding “it’s a disaster waiting to happen for inebriated patrons who are tempted by a dip in the briny on their way home” from nearby bars and restaurants.

The new swimming pool at Karanga Plaza is proving a hit with Aucklanders. Photo / Alex Burton

Data from the council’s Safeswim programme shows the percentage of time Karanga Plaza was safe to swim last summer was 85%.

This was near the bottom of the 130 or so beaches tested, which found 17 beaches were swimmable 100% of the time, eight were swimmable 99% of the time, and most were swimmable 90% or more of the time.

Launched in the summer of 2017, Safeswim has won international awards for providing residents with “transparent and accurate” real-time information on the water quality at 147 beaches and swimming spots across the city.

In 2020, Safeswim was awarded the Smart Water Project of the Year by Global Water Intelligence, and in 2023 it was selected by the world Economic Forum as one of three winters of the Digitial Twin Cities. Global Pioneer Project.

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