Community asked for feedback on Waimakariri water recommendations

The Waimakariri Water Zone Committee is seeking community feedback on draft recommendations for addressing challenges for freshwater management in the zone.

The draft recommendations contained in the committee’s draft Zone Implementation Programme Addendum (ZIPA) cover topics such as: reducing nitrate, phosphorus, and sediment losses, managing environmental flows, and improving ecological and cultural values in Waimakariri.

The zone committee, a community-led committee supported by councils, has actively engaged with Waimakariri residents, farmers, industry bodies and stakeholders to develop the recommendations which Waimakariri Water Zone chair Dave Ashby describes as, “challenging, but achievable”.

Dave Ashby says the recommendations represent the start of a journey towards improving water quality and quantity throughout the zone and that it is vital for everyone from urban residents, to small-block holders, farmers and industry bodies to play their part.

“We’re all in this together and everyone agrees that we must improve our rivers and streams. We have been listening to the community’s views and values and have developed a set of draft recommendations that we think will help achieve this.

“Many people are already taking action to clean up our waterways, but more needs to be done. Everyone will be impacted and we all have to work together to achieve our goals.”

Dave says that for some farmers, reaching Good Management Practice (GMP) won’t be enough and they will have to make further improvements over time.

“We’ve had to balance the need for reaching freshwater goals with community prosperity. This means that famers in high risk zones will need to make reductions in nitrates in stages over the next decade.”

In some areas of the zone with heavy soils, sediment, phosphorus and E. coli are having a more significant impact on waterways than nitrates. Runoff Priority Management Areas will be established to deal with these issues where contaminants are transported to waterways by runoff from farms, lifestyle blocks and urban stormwater.

Dave says it is important to acknowledge the innovative work already underway to improve water quality and quantity throughout Waimakariri.

“Lots of good work is already being done around the zone. One example is the work being done with the community and industry bodies to try and reduce nitrate levels at Silverstream through infiltration trials and denitrification wall trials.

“Farmers have been playing their part by investing in technology to improve irrigation efficiency and by making on-farm changes to reach good management practice.”

Public feedback is a vital part of this community-driven process and Dave encourages everyone with an interest in improving Waimakariri’s waterways to attend the upcoming feedback sessions.

“We are a community-led committee and we need to know if we have got it right, so it is really important that people come along to these sessions and let us know what they think. We’re all on this journey together and we need to share our ideas by getting involved in the discussion.”

A series of public feedback sessions to discuss the draft recommendations will be held from 26th September to 10th October. Once final, the recommendations will go to Environment Canterbury and Waimakariri District Council to inform their water management planning.

For more information on these sessions or for a copy of the draft recommendations visit: www.ecan.govt.nz/waimakariri .

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