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Blenheim public meeting

8 February 2005

Key questions/issues raised

  • The opportunity exists for a framework for a national policy to be put in place. Does the RMA review provide for this?
  • Community water supply. How clean should the public water supply be?
  • How can I protect my bit of water against all other interests and bad water quality? We are behind the world health guidelines. Maintaining water quality is important. What is going on to protect the health of drinking water? Government has a lot of catching up to do.

Researcher, iwi liaison rep

  • How do you propose to get iwi involved? There are no resources to sit alongside iwi. Iwi tend to get legislated against when they make noises, for example, the foreshore and seabed situation.
  • We don't know how much water is sitting in the aquifers. We don't know how much is going in and how much is going out. The cost of doing research is expensive, but the cost of not doing it is even more expensive. Who is going to pay for the research that is needed? Will central government pay for good information?
  • The Council has spent a lot of money on water research, but we still don't have all the information we need to manage the resource. Groundwater knowledge is lacking. Funding for research is an issue.
  • There will be huge challenges to get government departments involved. Developing water standards will have huge financial implications. Is the Ministry of Health involved in the Programme? The costs of getting the key players around the table should be considered. There is a huge commitment of time and resources needed - especially around the area of land-use impacts on water quality as raised in the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment's recent report on the subject.
  • There is a suspicion of research undertaken with commercial backing rather than research that is undertaken with government funds.
  • There is growing evidence of the effects of climate change on water availability. How is this being factored into the Programme? There is a need for a precautionary buffer in an allocation system.
  • The rivers in Marlborough are short at certain times of the year. This could be overcome by investing in storage. Private trial work has been undertaken on enhancing wetlands for improving river flows. The Government could find ways of storing water in upper catchments, at lower cost. Wetlands can provide nesting grounds for bird life and can moderate flood flows. There would be benefits for the whole catchment if we looked at using the benefits of gravity feed in and lower cost dams.

Federated Farmers

  • What other options are there for allocating water? What restrictions will be put in place for trading of water rights? There needs to be some restrictions to protect the interests of small players. Need to be wary of commercial interests taken over the available water.

Forest and Bird

  • There needs to be a long term vision and a determination of how much water will be set aside. Planning for water resources needs to be strategic.
  • How do you weigh up the priorities for water at national and regional levels? Social, economic, environment and cultural factors - how are these weighed up?
  • Greater values can miss out under first in first served. Good land-use areas could miss out on having water for production because the water is already allocated.
  • Regional Plans take a long time to be developed and implemented, and aren't given any status and power to be effective.

Vegetable growers, irrigator

  • The RMA allocation process is adversarial. In court cases, large companies are able to force objectors out by using expensive consultants and lawyers. Smaller objectors are sometimes seen as frivolous. Smaller objectors cannot have access to water when a resource is fully allocated. Smaller players may not be able to renew their water rights.
  • Central government is good at abdicating responsibilities to local government. Will this Programme end up costing ratepayers?

Irrigator, farmer, chairman of water users group

  • Water is fundamental to farmers. Water users must have security of supply. Don't tinker with something if it isn't broken. Investments have been made in infrastructure and these should be recognised.
  • What research into the regimes developed and adopted by other countries has been undertaken? Some lessons must have been learnt?
  • There are significant differences between New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand has a lot of water running to sea. We need to look at storing water.
  • New Zealand is getting overrun with one type of farming. Vegetable growing is commanding all of the water at the moment. How will the priorities be set for water? There should be some restrictions on high value users getting the best take. There should be some mechanism to share out what is available.
  • Everyone wants water and some have water but are not using it all. There is a lot of water being wasted. Money is spent on lawyers fighting court cases, but money is not invested in building dams. Storage should be looked at and efficiency of use.
  • Dairy farmer in flood plain area. Overseas markets require standards of hygiene. What effect will these requirements have on water availability? We need water to meet these requirements. Have a look at the Cawthron report on Spring Creek.
  • Custodian of small rural water supply: Being asked to conform to minimum quality standards will be difficult. It is difficult to see how rural communities can meet standards. There is no basic tool for small community groups to set a minimum quantity of water, to determine pipe sizes etc. Engineering expertise is too expensive.
  • Standards and research - central government has a role in undertaking research. Poorer councils need assistance with information. Central government has a role in sharing good practice and new information.
  • Water flowing out to sea is seen as wastage, but this view ignores the ecology of the river and the need for minimum flows. Interference with the flow of a braided river will create problems down stream, for example declining bird populations. Other values, in addition to economic values, can be lost.
  • There is a need to protect in stream values and to use water efficiently. Where do national policies fit to ensuring that these issues are addressed?

Councillor

  • New Zealand has a long history of development. Landowners are now able to build a sustainable aspect into their management. They have been made to become more aware of the environment. Council has expectations that this will occur.
  • The issues in the document are divided into those that require ecological values to be looked after and those that look after allocation. Ecological values are a given. Freshwater is needed to sustain ecological values. Names of rivers are synonymous with water. Prioritisation is another word for privatization of water and would mean moving towards the Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) fisheries regime. In this system, users benefit more than iwi. In this region iwi are currently not large water users. There needs to be a mechanism in place to incorporate this issue. The aquaculture framework is an example of how this could be done.
  • The Resource Management Act has not been a good Act for iwi in the top of the South Island. The Councils have not exercised powers for involving Māori. Central government needs to look at these issues.
  • There needs to be ability for iwi to become involved in managing resources. It is very hard for non-resource users to become involved, and for iwi where settlements have not taken place.
  • There is some middle ground for central government to get involved or to facilitate the investigation of storage options to ensure that enough water is available. There is potential for the government to get a good return if they choose to become involved.
  • Sustainable farming fund money has been used for various schemes in the region. The Government's role of stepping back in has been important.
  • A government seal of approval is important.
  • Efficiency of use is an issue. There should be restrictions to make sure people do not develop an inefficient system. We need to learn from our mistakes.
  • We want to run our own province but with government funding. Every province has its own problems and can deal with them in their own way.
  • If we are looking at long term sustainability, we need to look at government custodianship which can withstand political changes. There needs to be continual responsibility for maintaining building blocks for sustainable management. Keeping sustainability sustainable.
  • Who has the courage to say no? What about finding alternative approaches?
  • Should flood protection be incorporated into the Programme?
  • Are successful clawback strategies occurring around the country? What are the legal implications of this? This is a future source of information that could be circulated.
  • AgResearch undertakes research into the relationship between drought and production at generic level rather than an application level. More basic research into these areas would provide more options about which crops to grow. This would enable better choices to be made over agricultural and horticultural production.
  • Quite a lot of research has already been undertaken and future research is to be done. There is Foundation for Science, Research and Technology funding for some research.
  • Central government needs to take a lead role in funding research.
  • Will all of the submissions received be read?
  • Where do we go to from here? What's next in the process?
  • Storage through gravity is supported and should be investigated. Water farming should also be investigated.

Last updated: 25 November 2008