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“Clean,
Green” New Zealand’s Rivers in Crisis
Tony
Orman* Journalist/Editor P O Box 939 BLENHEIM, 7240 New Zealand
*Pic: What legacy are tomorrow New Zealand citizens being left with increasingly depleted and polluted rivers?
26
March, 2016
New
Zealand’s rivers are in a crisis stage with Government intent on
using the water to set up corporate dairy farmers. Rivers are going
“down the gurgler” in terms of flow and water quality.
Last
Saturday (19 March) Christchurch-based “The Press” in the South
Island featured a front page article about “trashed rivers.”
North Canterbury Fish and Game chairman said the trout fishery had
suffered years of environmental degradation. Declining river quality
particularly close to Christchurch city has seen rivers suitable for
swimming drop from 74 percent five years ago to 64 percent today.
Water
is a public resource in New Zealand and trout fisheries by Act of
Parliament are publicly owned. Rivers are valuable - indeed vital -
commercially recreationally and ecologically. But there is conflict
because of New Zealand government bias towards converting low
rainfall areas such as the Canterbury Plains and MacKenzie Basin near
Mt Cook, into lush green pasture for corporate dairy farming. That
grass growth in very low rainfall regions can only be achieved by
irrigation from the underground aquifer or water on the surface in
the form of rivers.
Dairying
in mega-farm, monoculture style also causes nitrate pollution that
leaches into aquifers and rivers.
The
government obsessed push for massive dairying expansion is an avarice
for money and export.
But
ironically world dairy prices have plunged making dairying a much,
much less attractive economic proposition. Dairy farmers, mostly the
Kiwi family farm, are struggling with low returns and increasing debt
levels. Corporates will survive and fears are overseas investors will
snap up dairy farms as the traditional Kiwi farming families are
forced to give up.
A
key to government’s aim to increase dairying at the expense of
rivers, is reforming the Resource Management Act to lower set
standards for water quality. Government intends to “reform”
freshwater management by amending the Resource Management Act and has
been carrying out a roadshow programme for public meetings. But the
itinerary shows government seems little interested in the concerns of
a worried public.
Andi
Cockcroft co-chairman of the Council of Outdoor Recreation
Associations (CORANZ) described the itinerary as “underwhelming”
with major cities such as Dunedin, Tauranga and New Plymouth left
out.
“Since
freshwater is a publicly owned resource, the token consultation
raises deep concern about government’s sincerity and questions
about any likely ulterior motives,” he said.
Ken
Sims spokesman for NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers said the
roadshow series of meetings seemed token consultation.
“It’s
going through-the-motions exercise without listening,” he said.
Reaction
to the proposed reforms has not been supportive of government agenda.
Even the Greater Wellington Regional council covering the district of
the capital city Wellington and even government’s own environmental
watchdog the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan
Wright told New Zealand’s Parliament the Bill amending the Resource
Management Act (RMA) went too far in stopping people having their say
on important environmental matters.” Proposed amendments
include giving the Environment Minister extreme power to shut out
certain voices and make changes to local council plans.
The
PCE said the powers granted to the Minister were “too
wide-ranging.” The RMA is now 25 years old and has been amended
many times. Dr Wright also made the point that it may be time for a
fundamental rethink about how to protect our environment and how to
plan cities.
It
is not just dairying that is a factor in declining river quality. A
number of urban areas still have inadequate sewage disposal.
All
in all however New Zealand’s “clean green” image vital to
attracting international tourists and giving New Zealand food exports
a “100 percent pure” brand is looking very tattered.
Freshwater
ecologist Mike Joy of Massey University has long been a strong
advocate for arresting the worsening state of rivers. as to
government’s preoccupation with increasing dairying of the
corporate kind, he challenges the sustainability of intensive dairy
farming in New Zealand, and the myth that the Resource Management Act
protects the environment.
“Nitrogen fertiliser use has risen 700 percent in a decade; nitrogen levels at 77 fresh water sites are up.”
“Nitrogen fertiliser use has risen 700 percent in a decade; nitrogen levels at 77 fresh water sites are up.”
Nitrates
leaching into rivers and aquifers are a major pollutant.
Back
in 2011 Prime Minister John Key was interviewed on BBC Hardtalk about
the myth of the country’s “100 percent pure” claim relative to
rivers.
John
Key found himself having to defend New Zealand’s “100 percent
Pure’ slogan as BBC journalist Stephen Sackur grilled him about
whether New Zealand really is as clean and green as the tourism
campaign suggested.
Stephen
Sackur cited Mike Joy, a leading environmental scientist at Massey
University, who had said “we (New Zealand government) are
delusional about how green and clean we are”.
“That
might be Mike Joy’s view, but I don’t share that view,” said Mr
Key when Mr Sackur presented him with the quote.
Stephen
Sackur then pointed out that Mr Joy was a scientist and would have
based his comments on research.
Mr
Key replied: “Well he’s one academic, and like lawyers I can give
you another one that will give a counterview.”
The
Prime Minister said that in comparison to the rest of the world New
Zealand is ‘100% Pure’, but Mr Sackur disagreed, saying; “100
percent is 100 percent and clearly you’re not 100 percent. You’ve
clearly got problems with river pollution, you’ve clearly got
problems with species facing extinction.”
Mr
Sackur said Mr Joy blamed decades of poor New Zealand government
policy.
That
was 2011. Now five years later government seems still in a state of
denial about the loss of rivers and the myth about “clean and
green” and “100 percent pure.” And the public’s river are
being sacrificed.
Tony
Orman is a New Zealand journalist and author of outdoor
books
When
Nick Smith said making every river swimmable ‘was not practical’
did a little bit of you die?
By
Martyn
Bradbury
13
March, 2016
Neither
a rap nor bible verse could sway Environment Minister Nick Smith to
consider making waterways swimmable.
Smith
visited Palmerston North on Thursday as part the Government’s
nationwide fresh water consultation, the night before a new five-year
plan to clean up the Manawatu River was due to be released.
As
the meeting turned over to the public for questions, a range were
posed of the minister ranging from swimmable waterways and the
Shannon wastewater treatment plant, to a protest rap, and a reading
of a few verses from the book of Genesis.
Smith
fielded several questions on why the Government was not aiming for
swimmable waterways.
Each
time, he responded that it simply was not “practical”.
“I
do not think a legal requirement for every water body in New Zealand
to be swimmable is practical.”
After
cheerleading for the dairy intensification that now sees many dairy
farms drowning in debt, Nick says it’s not ‘practical’ to
ensure our rivers can be swam in.
Did
a little bit of you die when you read that NZ?
This
is the NZ National voters have built.
The
Greens seem to be missing in action here. The Head of Hufflepuff,
James Shaw (aka Dr Invisible) looks like a possum stuck in the
headlights most interviews. I don’t want to sound like a trolls
troll but the Greens communications and political strategy looks as
flat footed as a duck. The Wellington clique who are running the
Green Party now are great at alienating people on twitter, but don’t
seem to be so sharp when it comes to making political gains.
Meanwhile
our rivers run brown with cow shit so National Party voters can drown
in debt.
Great
work NZ.
