Water in a Box on its Way to Christchurch the Fastway

Donation sees 13,000 litres of bottled and boxed water to arrive by courier in Christchurch today.

When the 6.3 magnitude quake struck Christchurch, the team from Auckland company, Aquaceuticals, makers of Water in a Box, immediately wondered how they could help the people of Canterbury.

That question was answered when they were put in touch with Fastway Couriers who likewise wanted to help.

The result was 13,000 litres of Water in a Box packaged spring water being loaded from the Whakatane plant last night and due to arrive in Christchurch today (Thursday).

“Our 10 litre Water in a Box is ideal for this,’ says Glen Curd, Director of Aquaceuticals. “Small enough to carry, large enough to be worthwhile and totally pure, so no need to boil,” he said.

“We’re putting everything we have spare on the truck and we hope to be able to do more over the coming weeks,” he said.

Brem Ellingham Group Managing Director of Fastway Couriers said the call from Aquaceuticals was a Godsend.

“We wanted to help and we made capacity available on one of our trucks heading for the South Island overnight – with enough space for around 16 pallets.

“That space is now entirely full of boxes and bottles of water and we hope it will be useful to the people of Christchurch,” he said.

Ellingham said that the Fastway Couriers Canterbury depot survived the quake but was damaged and his team was shaken. “Everyone in New Zealand is somehow connected with the devastation of Christchurch and we’re no exception,” he said.

With limited water supply, Christchurch residents have been queuing in their hundreds at the designated refuge centres around the city to fill whatever containers they have access to with water. Furthermore, the quality of water that is available to earthquake stricken Christchurch is currently undrinkable; with Civil Defence repeating the message that residents need to boil any water that they have before using it.