21 November 2013

PCE report signals need for strong water rules

A new report on land use and water quality shows the need for strong rules to ensure our rivers and lakes are safe for swimming and the need to limit conversions to dairying, the Green Party said today.

The report Water Quality in New Zealand: Land use and nutrient pollution was released today by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. It shows a strong link between land use change to intensive agriculture and water pollution. It models nutrient pollution from land uses such as dryland farming , forestry, and dairying and matches this with changes in land use to predict the amount of nutrients polluting our waterways.

“New Zealanders want to be able to swim in our rivers,” said Green Party water spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

“This well researched report underlines the need for urgent action to limit land use change and nutrient pollution to protect our rivers and lakes.

“We need strong rules to protect our rivers from continued expansion in intensive farming which the report clearly identifies is polluting our waterways.

“The National Government needs to reconsider its proposed weak bottom lines for water quality and set tougher standards to ensure all our rivers are safe for swimming.

“Nutrient leaching from intensive farming is a major cause of water pollution. Regions with significant increases in dairying such as Canterbury, Otago, and Southland have the largest increases in nitrogen loads. They are the same areas with the greatest deterioration in water quality.

“The report predicts an on-going deterioration in water quality in many catchments across New Zealand, especially in Canterbury and Southland. Nitrate pollution on Canterbury’s rivers, lakes, and streams is predicted to increase by 45% between 1996 and 2020.

“It confirms that measures such as riverbank planting aren’t enough to offset the increased nutrient load from continued large-scale land use change to more intensive uses like dairying.

“The Parliamentary Commissioner makes it very clear that our rivers and lakes are paying the price of extensive land use change. The Government needs to act now to save our rivers and stop the pollution problem getting worse,” Ms Sage said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media