What do you reckon about water? The Horizons Regional Council wants your views on how water is allocated, via an online survey.
Horizons policy and strategy manager Charlotte Almond said the current allocation framework does not fulfil all the requirements outlined in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM).
“A key requirement is that freshwater is managed in a way that gives effect to Te Mana o te Wai, which means prioritising the health and wellbeing of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems over anything else,” Almond said.
“As such, we will need to change our current water allocation framework to give effect to Te Mana o te Wai and the NPS-FM, and have identified some key areas for improvement.
“Those areas include essential takes, reasonable and efficient volumes of water for people and growth, water zones with no water left to allocate, and water takes for hydroelectricity generation - these are what we would like people to share their thoughts on.”