There is "no room for complacency" over the quality of Otago’s rivers and lakes, Fish and Game New Zealand senior environmental planner Peter Wilson warns.
Mr Wilson is a former Fish and Game Otago environmental officer who is now based in Wellington, but also works in Dunedin.
He was commenting on a major report "Our Fresh Water 2017" which has just been jointly produced by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand.
The report says nitrogen levels are rising and three quarters of monitored native fish species are nearing extinction.
The report also notes that Otago dairy cattle numbers rose 368% between 1994 and 2015, to 384,979, the fourth-highest regional dairy cattle increase in percentage terms in the country, behind Southland (539%, 731,209), Nelson (499%, 8459), and Canterbury (490%, 1,253,993).
Mr Wilson said the Otago Regional Council had in some respects been performing better than many other regional councils, and had many of "the building blocks in place" in terms of positive future water planning.
Many of the report’s themes of loss of wetlands and growing overall environmental challenges could also be seen in Otago.
But the ORC also faced big challenges in putting sufficient resources in place to implement its water quality plans, he said.
ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said there were "no surprises" in the report’s findings, and said more intensive farming had had some impact in South and West Otago, but there was also room for optimism over some improvements involving specific discharges, including in the Lower Clutha and Wanaka.
"The whole community needs to take responsibility for water quality."
Federated Farmers Otago provincial president Phill Hunt agreed "we can’t be complacent" about future water quality, but said the growth in Otago dairy cattle numbers had to be seen in proportion, given a relatively modest cattle number base in 1994.
The ORC was one of only a few regional councils that had an operational water plan in place, the region enjoyed good water quality overall, and Federated Farmers was working collaboratively to put "the message out" about the need to protect water quality.
Maintaining and improving water quality was a challenge for everyone in Otago, both in the town and country, he said.
