Water bottling consent data sought

Michael Laws
Michael Laws
Otago regional councillor Michael Laws has asked the ORC chairman and chief executive to tell him ``how many water consents have been granted for companies to take millions of litres of water for commercial bottling purposes'' from the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes region.

Cr Laws said he was ``surprised'' to read in the ODT about the company named Koha Water Ltd being given a consent to extract 236,000cu m of groundwater from an aquifer near the Dart River until 2018.

``I realise this consent was granted five years ago and there wasn't the same sensitivity about water quantity and quality we have now, but I have no doubt it would not be granted today,'' he said.

``There has been a paradigm shift in public perception towards water and the environment and it's particularly acute in the Central Otago and Lakes district region where we have seen significant degradation of the lakes.''

``At the end of the day, the ORC has a responsibility to the environment first,'' he said.

Cr Laws said he had written to ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead and chief executive Peter Bodeker formally requesting a briefing paper for tomorrow's committee meeting on the background and current stance on the Koha consent.

``I'd also like to know how many other such consents linger in the ORC files, that have the capacity to embarrass us and run counter to existing or proposed council water policy.

``The ORC have been very secretive and the need for openness and transparency is something that I'm fighting for on this council and there's a lot more to come,'' Cr Laws said.

Water New Zealand has weighed into the recent public debate over water extraction and bottling by calling for a national conversation over water pricing.

Water New Zealand chief executive John Pfahlert said the Prime Minister and the Environment Minister were right in saying charging for water was a complex and difficult issue as it raised the question of who owned the water and who ought to be charged and on what basis.

He said that water charges and taxes had been discussed by the Land and Water Forum for years and that the members had never been able to reach an agreement.

``You don't want to make a kneejerk reaction and say all water bottling is bad because it's being sold to foreigners who appear to be profiting from a valuable resource without paying for it.''

Mr Pfahlert believes a whole range of issues including the proposed Ruataniwha Dam in Central Hawkes Bay, the E. coli outbreak in the Havelock North water supply and having rivers and streams that are not swimmable had changed the public's perception about water.

``Most New Zealanders have never had to think about water before now, but when water bottling companies start talking about upgrading facilities or taking water it gets their ire up.''

``We need to look at the issue of water pricing in a much more rational way. It's going to take a long time and there needs to be much more analysis done,'' he said.

kerrie.waterworth@odt.co.nz

 

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