Ashleigh Collis: Taking responsibility for being green

In summer my favourite place to be is the Ohau River at Gladstone Reserve, so when I hear that my river is too polluted to swim in, I get angry. Photo / Horowhenua Chronicle

With so much debate around water quality lately, Horowhenua Chronicle reporter Ashleigh Collis decided to take a look at her own water use habits and how we all need to take personal responsibility for our environment.

I only have to evaluate my daily decisions to see the potential future of our environment.

In summer my favourite place to be is the Ohau River at Gladstone Reserve. It's my slice of paradise.

Surrounded by native bush, I dive under the cool mountain water and the world disappears.

I'm at peace, but when I hear that my river is too polluted to swim in, I get angry and look to find someone to blame.

I can easily blame the farmer, because research shows conclusively that intensive farming has a huge impact on our freshwater. However, when facing environmental issues it's all too easy to point the finger.

What is harder to do is look in the mirror and evaluate how my daily actions contribute to the pollution of my 'clean, green' New Zealand.

I wake in the morning, jump in the shower, wash my hair with shampoo, my body with soap and brush my teeth with toothpaste.

I wash my clothes and do the dishes, all without a second thought about my water usage or the fact that those chemicals end up in the rivers via sewage pond discharges.

On average I use 200 to 230 litres of water per day and around 90 per cent of that I throw away, polluted by chemicals?

Did you know that you probably do the same?

A child in India may have to walk hours for dirty water to drink that may even make him sick and take his life, yet I don't change my ways because the effects here at home are arguably less confronting, out of sight and out of mind.

As a three-year-old my brother had a pet fish.

I thought it needed to have a shower so I put shampoo in the fish bowl, and the fish died.

You could expect this ignorance from a three-year-old but I am an adult now and I, like so many of us, continue to go through life wilfully ignorant of my environmental impact.

If you walked up to me on the street and pointed your finger at me, blaming me for polluting the Horowhenua waterways, I would have to admit guilt.

I may not be solely responsible but I take part in our throw-away society.

My refusal to challenge the status quo, my continual use of vehicles that pollute roadside waterways, the fact that I send tonnes of toxic rubbish to landfill and the waste I flush down the toilet, using fresh water, all contribute to the problem.

I don't smell the stench of my rubbish decomposing, I don't see leachate from the landfill trickling into our freshwater so I don't feel responsible, but like it or not, I am, because I take part in the system, a system that needs to change.

New Zealand is known to be 'clean and green' and Kiwis are known for their ingenuity.

These two combined only paint one picture for me, a picture of a country leading the way in sustainability and environmentally friendly initiatives.

But that reputation does not really belong to us.

New Zealand has a long way to go towards sustainability. I know this because of my consumer mind-set, the same mind-set that is ingrained into our society as a whole.

I need to face the truth that everyday my actions are contributing to the degradation of the natural environment I claim to love so much, that before laying the blame on others, I must first evaluate myself.