Rotorua’s Lake Ōkaro water improving

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has today welcomed the release of a report showing that water quality is improving in one of Rotorua’s lakes.

A report released yesterday by Environment Minister Nick Smith said 32 percent of New Zealand ’s monitored lakes had poor water quality and more lakes were deteriorating. Mr Smith said New Zealand needed to improve freshwater management to ensure the country’s lakes measured up to its clean, green reputation.

Regional Council Chairman John Cronin said the report affirmed the council’s work on the Rotorua lakes.

“Our focus on the lakes has been confirmed, as has our work with both central government and the farming community on the lakes, in particular Lake Rotorua ,” Mr Cronin said.

“We are particularly pleased to be able to advise that the lake on which we have completed all the actions in its Action Plan, a small lake called Lake Ōkaro , has improved dramatically in the last few months.

“The trophic level index ¬(the number used to indicate lake health, where higher numbers indicate worse water quality) was 5.3, and our target was 5.0. This month we received the news that for the last year it had reached 4.7.

“This affirms that many of the directions and actions we and the community we are taking to improve lake water quality are working.”

Mr Cronin said while it was a huge task for those involved to scale up the actions to be used to improve Lake Rotorua ’s water quality, everyone remained committed to the task.

“We want to see steady improvement in our lakes, with the proof being the longevity of the change that we’ve managed to bring about.”

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