Pauline Doyle
There is no place for water-bottling companies in New Zealand - at any price.
Our water resources are under stress in terms of quality and quantity.
We need to conserve water.
We need to clean up our act. That will cost money - but if all users pay their fair share it will be a small price to pay to ensure that we can safely drink the water from our kitchen taps.
We have to do better than "Swimmable rivers".
Labour's freshwater policy talks about "swimmable rivers" - sooner rather than later. That would be nice.
National also talks about "swimmable rivers" - but not yet - maybe by 2040. And meantime their policy is to actually make it easier for the polluters to pollute by doubling the quantity of nitrogen that farmers can allow to seep off the paddock and into the waterways and rivers. The Government's water inquiry seems to be hellbent on making it mandatory for all public drinking water supplies to be chlorinated, throughout the whole of New Zealand.
That would fit neatly with National's policy on river pollution: "you can keep drinking the polluted water - just add chemicals". It would remove the need for them to take real action - right now - to start cleaning up our rivers and waterways.
Never mind swimming in our rivers - we need to be able to safely drink from our rivers.
After the storm and power outage in Hawke's Bay on August 6 last year one-third of the population of Havelock North were poisoned when they drank the contaminated town supply. There were 1600 sheep in the paddock near the two council bores. Sheep faeces was identified as the cause of the campylobacter outbreak. As a result, we now understand just how easily our drinking water supplies can be polluted.
In Napier, Hastings and Havelock North 100 per cent of our town supplies come from underground aquifers. However, more than half of New Zealand's public water supplies are sourced directly from our rivers. Just by way of example, the majority of Auckland households are drinking Waikato river water from their kitchen taps - heavily laced with chlorine - and chlorine as opposed to other methods of water treatment is another debate we need to have.
With regard to charging for water - it's actually about protecting this scarce resource - we need to develop the attitude of conserving water rather than thinking we can waste water because "it rains so much in New Zealand". In Auckland domestic consumers are metered and pay for "excessive" use of water.
It costs money to clean up our river and water sources, and everyone should pay their fair share. It's time we got used to the idea and everyone [vineyards, vegetable and fruit growers, sheep and beef farmers, dairy farmers etc as well as domestic consumers] started conserving water and paying for the cleanup.
Farmers: Water is crucial for animals and for irrigation of food crops, vineyards, etc: farmers/irrigators should all be paying their fair share for cleaning up our waterways - and encouraged to conserve water.
Water-bottling companies: The proposal to charge water-bottling companies some sort of royalty the same as we do for oil & gas extraction is missing the point.
We depend 100 per cent on water for our survival. We don't depend on oil for our survival - in fact we managed quite well without it until 100 years ago - and now we have alternatives. Clean drinking water is a health issue - and because it is a health issue all water extraction should be metered, and conservation of our water resources should be government policy.
There is absolutely no place for the water-bottling industry in New Zealand, especially as we face up to the uncertainties of droughts etc which come with climate change - already upon us. Once water-bottling extraction begins to deplete our aquifers and rivers that's when contamination begins to occur - it's a quantity v. quality dynamic.
So it's not just our rivers - it's also our aquifers. The water in the Heretaunga aquifer is 100 per cent pure and safe to drink untreated, but unconfined aquifers are vulnerable if nearby streams and rivers are polluted.
Last year's gastro crisis in Havelock North has made us aware of the many sources of contamination of our water supplies - it's not just "dirty dairying". In Hawke's Bay we've got the lot: serious contamination from animal, industrial, orchards [chemical sprays], and even human sewage. Rest assured, what's in our waterways will inevitably end up in our drinking water supplies.
It's time we had cross-party agreement to clean up our act.
Pauline Doyle and Ken Keys are spokespeople for Guardians of the Aquifer. Views expressed here are the writers' opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz
Thirty-two Brazilian farmers will spend next week networking and learning in New Zealand.