He kiore kei roto i te whare – Rats in the house

Kua kāinga katoatia e te kiore, ngā keipāka kei roto i Taku Hiahia me Ngā Taiwhakarongorua.

We have rats in the house!

Trust chair, Cath Holland says rodents have made mince meat of mattresses in Taku Hiahia and Ngā Taiwhakarongorua.  She said it's not  surprising since the marae was closed down in March of last year due to COVID 19 and closure extended for the infrastructure rebuild.

“Trustees have taken professional advice from PĀUA architect, Richard Mauriohooho.  He’s insisting we move immediately to get both buildingss fumigated before the rats start chewing on the electrical wiring.  Rodents eat through mattresses if they’re not stacked and covered so there’s the first issue we need to address.  Secondly, we’re looking at installing fire emergency alarms and water sprinklers.  But if the wiring is damaged, it’ll stuff up the installation process due to go in at Stage 1 of the rebuild,” Cath says.

Given the huge health and safety risk we currently face without fire emergency equipment, Cath says the trust didn’t want to further risk the health and safety of our beneficiaries.  

“Both wharenui will be fumigated to get rid of the rat infestation and mitigate the risk to the electrical wiring.   We then need to lay rat bait throughout the buildings to keep the rats out,” she says.

“We’ll have all of our mattresses covered and properly stored in future to avoid this from recurring because guess what?  The rats are here to stay and so are we. We just have to keep rodents out,” she says.