Two young people on paddle boards making their way down a picturesque waterway.
But the fourth three-yearly report from the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ paints a picture about the state of the country’s freshwater which is at odds with that cover image.
Modelling estimates between 2020 and 2024 that 44% of New Zealand’s total river length was not suitable for recreational activities such as swimming, and presumably paddle boarding, due to faecal contamination.
The nitrate position for rivers was less straightforward, very likely worsening at 31% of monitored river sites and very likely improving at 30% between 2005 and 2024.
A Southland Regional Council report released earlier this year highlighted the issue in that area, where an estimated 15,000 Southlanders could be drinking water polluted by nitrates. Intensification of dairy farming was listed as a key cause of growing nitrate levels there. That report said nitrate concentrations in groundwater frequently exceeded 3.5 mg/L and in some places exceeded the New Zealand drinking water standard of 11.3 mg/L.
More than half of Southland's domestic drinking water supply wells were estimated to have nitrate concentrations above 3.5 mg/L. The national report points out most historic wetland areas have been lost, with only 10% remaining to do their work of storing carbon, regulating water flow during storms and purifying water. Southland holds the unenviable record of experiencing the greatest losses of wetlands, with a total loss of 2,926 hectares between 1996 and 2023.
While the report listed some positive signs, including improvements to visual clarity in rivers and phosphorous levels, this was not enough to offset its overall bleak tone. Other impacts on water quality include contamination as a result of climate change and extreme weather events, increasing numbers of long-lasting pollutants and micro-plastics which are not yet well understood, shrinking glaciers, and sea-level rise pushing saltwater further inland.
The foreword to the report states the obvious, that the challenges facing freshwater are complex and long-term.
Meeting them will require shared understanding, sustained attention and collaborative effort. The report does not evaluate policy or recommend solutions.
Its purpose is to provide the evidence needed for informed decisions by communities, iwi and Māori, local and central government, businesses and households. But despite years of dismal reports on water quality, these issues are not being handled urgently or cohesively.
It is as if we are all so used to hearing this horror story and witnessing successive governments’ inadequate action, we feel more helpless than outraged.
University of Otago ecologist and inaugural chairman in freshwater sciences Prof Ross Thompson who peer-reviewed the ministry’s report said there were clear signs of degradation in Otago and Southland rivers and lakes as a consequence of farming and the loss of wetlands.
Of most concern was where there was large-scale landscape change such as urbanisation, dairy or forestry conversions. What was required was a combination of regulatory consideration of land use and also ‘‘desperately needed’’ research-based improvements to on-farm practices due to the ‘‘huge expansion’’ of dairy farm conversions already.
‘‘Regardless of the future of regional councils there is going to have to be government management of these problems. The market is not going to fix this.’’
University of Waikato Associate Prof Nicholas Ling has called for improved co-ordination between those caring for water.
These agencies included Ministry of the Environment, the Environmental Protection Authority, regional councils, the Department of Conservation, and Fish and Game.
Other countries who had experienced similar declines had been able to make huge gains in their freshwater quality, he said.
It would be great to think that could happen here, but proposed environmental planning reforms suggest the government has no appetite for it, and our water quality is more likely to continue to go down the gurgler.
