Te Mana o Te Wai government repeal, condemning rural communities to unsafe drinking water

Greenpeace Aotearoa is criticizing today’s government announcement that it plans to abolish intensive winter grazing and Te Mana o Te Wai rules in the next bill to amend the Resource Management Act.

Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Amanda Larsson says: “The Luxon-led government has just deprioritized the protection of freshwater and the health of rural communities, in favor of allowing big corporations to pollute water across the country.”

Te Mana o Te Wai is a hierarchy of obligations under the RMA that prioritises water use. Recognizing that freshwater health is inextricably linked to human health, the first priority is the health of the water bodies themselves. Next in importance is the health of communities and their access to safe drinking water, and this is finally followed by its use for commercial purposes.

Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury last weekend by Greenpeace found that several city public supplies reached nitrate levels above 5 mg/l – the threshold that a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to an increased risk of preterm birth.

“Nobody should have to worry about whether the water coming out of the kitchen tap is safe to drink, but for many rural communities that is an increasingly worrying issue,” says Larsson.

“Current freshwater protection measures such as Te Mana o Te Wai and the intensive winter grazing regulations are not perfect, but they are better than nothing, and they work. By lifting these protections, the government is condemning more and more rural communities to unsafe levels of nitrate contamination of their drinking water.

“Everyone has the right to know that the water coming out of the kitchen tap is safe to drink, and to be able to take a dip in the local river without getting sick, but Christopher Luxon’s government is taking that away from the rural people of New Zealand. ”

The vast majority of nitrate pollution in drinking water, lakes and rivers comes from the dairy industry’s intensive use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, and cow urine. Greenpeace says removing these protections will worsen water pollution.

“In the interests of all New Zealanders, Luxon must leave our freshwater protection rules alone and prevent water pollution from dirty dairy products from getting worse,” Larsson said.

“From the smallest villages to the largest cities, people care a lot about freshwater. If Christopher Luxon and his government think they can get away with this direct attack on the country’s already severely polluted rivers, lakes and drinking water, then something else is in store.”