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A Tauranga-based kaumatua is questioning a ceremony to bless workers laying a sewage pipeline along the Matapihi Peninsula.
Charlie Timutimu from Ngai Tuhoe says Maori don't bless plumbers who installed toilets in their houses, so he desn't see why the $8 million project needed blessing.
He says it seems it was being done to please the council's iwi consultation processes.
Mr Timutimu says the Maori community of Matapihi had opposed the project, which is designed to relieve pressure on services in Tauranga's growing southern suburbs.
As a concession they have secured a junction point so sewage on the largely Maori-owned peninsula can eventually be hooked into the pressurised pipeline.
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