Living with ‘the stench’: the smelly New Zealand city with an air of despair

For years, residents and businesses in Lower Hutt city, New Zealand, have been living with the odour emanating from the Seaview wastewater treatment plant. Photograph: Andy Barker/Getty Images/iStockphoto

In a small city across the harbour from New Zealand’s capital, an invisible villain is terrorising locals. It hovers thick and putrid, seeping through windows, tainting laundry and making people retch. “The stench”, as locals call it, can be so odious, people have to dash between their car and house holding their breath, have stopped eating outside and are considering selling their homes to escape.

“It’s like a long-drop [toilet] that’s not well ventilated,” says Anthony Coomer who lives and works in the area. “It’s like the worst baby’s nappy you have ever smelt … and that’s what it is like in your mouth.”