Water and River Crisis Real Despite Government Denial

New Zealand has a crisis with its water resource says the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations (CORANZ). However government appeared complacent about the deteriorating state of rivers and contamination of aquifers. CORANZ co-chairman Bill Benfield said recent government comments showed there appeared a lack of will to address the serious situation.

Bill Benfield said Prime Minister John Key recently claimed on television, commenting on Havelock North’s water contamination, that New Zealand was still a “100 percent pure”. In 2011 on BBC Hard Talk - the flagship interview slot on BBC World television - the Prime Minister took a grilling about New Zealand's advertising slogan of “100% Pure New Zealand”. The interviewer took the Prime Minister to task about the “polluted state” of rivers saying it contradicted the pure branding.

“One would assume the PM learned a lesson on BBC Hard Talk. Consequently his statement last week relative to the Havelock North water contamination was startling,” said Bill Benfield.

In addition to the Prime Minister’s statement, a few days later, Minister for the Environment Dr Nick Smith in an environment speech at Lincoln University said a target of making all rivers swimmable, was "impractical”.

CORANZ considered rivers must “at the least be swimmable, and preferably better than that with a healthy ecology based on aquatic invertebrate life."

CORANZ said both responses indicated a dangerously complacent attitude.

“Uncontaminated water is vital to the health of people,” said Bill Benfield. “It is vital to the ecology and environment and for the public to enjoy for recreation. Politicians cannot afford to be cavalier about its well-being.”

In a few short decades, rivers had gone from a clean, drinkable state to sixty-one percent now classified as unfit for swimming. Large scale dairying expansion for corporates in low rainfall areas was putting stress on aquifers, deleting river flow and with less water flowing, raising contamination levels. However in the Havelock North contamination case, two rural towns in Waipawa and Waipukurau had for decades, been pouring sewage into the Waipawa and Tukituki Rivers.

Rivers and aquifers were of the same resource and depleting underground water resulted in lowered river levels.

"It’s the duty of all New Zealanders town and country - and government - to tackle the aquifer water and river contamination with the utmost vigour and action,” said Bill Benfield.

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