Pledge to make rivers swimmable

The Government is promising New Zealanders it will clean up the nation's rivers to a level where they are safe for swimming within a generation.

And it has already intervened in the burgeoning ‘‘water wars'' over allocation in drought-prone regions by imposing a new national standard to measure water ‘‘takes'' - including the water that farmers are drawing off rivers and underground reservoirs.

Environment Minister Trevor Mallard yesterday also called for farmers to clean up their act - and their land - to reduce pollution of lakes and rivers.

‘‘There are rivers that I swam in as a child that are no longer swimmable,'' Mr Mallard told the National Water NZ conference in Auckland.

‘‘To be frank, it dismays and disgusts me that things have got so bad due to decades of both rural and urban pollution.''

Mr Mallard said water was crucial to the ‘‘Kiwi lifestyle'', and promised to work to return the nation's rivers to being clean enough to swim in ‘‘within a generation''.

Mr Mallard said complacency was not an option and there was no room in freshwater management for a ‘‘soft'' policy.

Improving freshwater management would require persistent polluters to change their behaviour. These included urban residents, because some of the most polluted streams in the country were in towns and cities.

Mr Mallard said that there were such strong tensions between groups seeking to use the same water for urban reservoirs, the environment, recreation and irrigation, that there was a ‘‘need to place a line in the sand'' on how these tensions should be resolved.

‘‘The National Environmental Standard for Measuring Water Takes was approved by Cabinet yesterday and will now be drafted into regulation,'' he said.

‘‘This standard will help better water management by ensuring accurate measuring of the amount of water taken from rivers, lakes and aquifers.''

Mr Mallard also called on local authorities planning new investments in public infrastructure to factor in water and environmental sustainability in planning processes.

‘‘The time has long gone when it is acceptable for public agencies to defer spending on environmental initiatives in favour of shorter-term gains,'' he said.

Add a Comment