Column written by Greg Donnison, the acting chairman of Forest & Bird’s Hastings-Havelock North Branch and Chantal Pagal, Forest & Bird’s regional conservation manager, Te Moana A Toi Te Huatahi Bay of Plenty, Te Tai Rāwhiti Gisborne, Te Matau A Māui Hawke’s Bay.
OPINION:
Like other regions of Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay is grappling with climate change and how best to build resilience into the system.
Water supply is a key part of the equation, and opinions vary on how to manage a resource facing increasing demands from urban and rural users. Large-scale dams -including the Ruataniwha - are once again being proposed as part of the solution.
But large-scale dams are not the panacea some claim them to be. In fact, they put even more pressure on our environment through the destruction they cause to the rivers they strangle, and they prompt an intensification of farming that further degrades the health of the surrounding area.
These more intensive land uses tend to be less resilient than whatever came before, as they rely on the water stored behind the dam. If the water isn’t there (as has occurred in many parts of the world in recent years), these people suffer even more than if the dam had never been put there.
In our view, the conversations and solutions for climate resilience need to remain squarely focused on sustainability and how to live within the limits of our environment.
The Makaroro River, on which the Ruataniwha Dam was to have been constructed (2020). Photo / Warren Buckland
The knowledge we have about water in our region is greater than ever. Projects such as the regional council’s 3D mapping of the aquifers give a much better picture of the groundwater beneath us.
We could readily determine how much water we can extract before we start to do long-term damage to the rivers and groundwater that support us and our region.
It wouldn’t be much harder to determine what we can farm or grow sustainability within those limits, which should, in turn, help us reflect on the allocation of existing water intakes.
The current allowance for six intensive dairy farms to take the primary share of water in Central Hawke’s Bay is not wise in terms of water use.
We need to be smarter about how we allocate and use water. Rather than providing for dams or more extraction, local and central governments should support the better use of existing water allocations, including through land use change.
There needs to be a fairer allocation of water that ensures all users get a fair go, not just the favoured few who got in first.
We need to use nature-based solutions – like native tree planting on steep hillsides and wetland restoration – to hold water in the landscape naturally, providing more resilience to existing water users without costing our native birds and fish.
Just last year, a study on the Ngaruroro River found that by widening the river corridor, we could increase the natural recharge rate of the Heretaunga aquifer, benefiting gravel extractors and irrigators and increasing flood capacity. This sort of investment in nature is much smarter than investing in a dam.
We have an opportunity to transform Te Matau-a-Māui back to something like its former self: a healthy, vibrant region that can help mitigate the worst effects of climate change and continue to provide for the needs of our communities.
Resilience is not about hard-engineered solutions that distort our place on the planet, resilience is about understanding our environmental limits and learning to live within them.
Ki te kore te tāngata e manaaki i tōna taiao, ka kore te tāngata e whai oranga - If people do not take care of the environment, we are not taking care of our own health and wellbeing.
