Seven people have been arrested following an overnight police operation to evict mana whenua representatives from a peaceful protest against a sewer line at Lake Rotokākahi - a lake privately owned by Ngāti Tūmatawera and Tūhourangi.
A Give-a-Little has been set up to cover the legal fees of those arrested overnight and any further legal action relating to the Tarawera Sewerage scheme.
Police said it deployed 80 officers to the tapu lake under the cover of darkness, across two shifts, but those on the ground overnight said that number was higher than 100.
Tūhourangi has kapa performing at Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga today.
Rotorua Lakes Council contractors were set to continue work on the Tarawera Sewerage Scheme, which has more than a kilometre of pipeline left to be laid, but mana whenua have expressed severe concern over its pathway near the sacred lake.
The location of the pipeline is a wāhi tapu area where 120 tūpuna died following the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera.
A police presence is expected to continue alongside the council work this week.
In October last year, the Rotorua Lakes District Council renewed a District Court bid to stop interference.
On Friday, Lake Rotokākahi Board of Control spokesperson Te Whatanui Leka Taumalolo Skipwith told Local Democracy Reporting it had applied in the Environment Court for “a declaration that the council required a resource consent to install the pipe, and for enforcement to halt works until the resource consent is obtained”.
The application was set to be reviewed yesterday.
