Stu Kneebone: Strategy looks at water issues

Stu Kneebone

Waikato Regional Council recently completed and adopted a Waikato Freshwater Strategy.

It is council's response to the challenges we as a region face with how we manage our freshwater resources over the coming decades. It recognises that the freshwater demands of the future are increasing, and that the community's interest and expectations of how we manage the rights to access and utilise our freshwater resource is top of mind for all of us.

A key part of the strategy is about working with others and advocating to central government for a broader range of tools to assist us in making better decisions when it comes to allocating the rights to take and use fresh water.

Regional councils are currently very limited with what they can and can't do when granting a consent to take water.

The legislation and allocation tools that we are bound to work with were introduced many years ago, at a time when demands on the resource were completely different.

They are fundamentally based on a first in/first served approach, and adherence to a minimum environmental flow.

Issues such as what the water is to be used for, and/or the contribution of a proposed take to the local or regional economy can not be taken into account.

There are a number of ways in which the system could be improved, and this strategy will be looking into all of the different options.

This could include pricing scenarios, both for water taken out of water bodies, and for the use of water in rivers and streams to assimilate contaminants (effectively a pollution charge).

However, pricing on its own would certainly not be the complete solution.

Access to a range of economic instruments to help ensure water users are incentivised to make better decisions in terms of how and when they use freshwater could compliment existing regulatory tools, and contribute to efficiency of use.

We need smarter methods to enable us to model future "what if" type scenarios to enable us to plan more effectively.

Our current system is based on a measure and monitor approach, which tends to mean we are sometimes more conservative with our allocation decisions than perhaps is necessary.

We therefore need better data, and ways of managing and presenting this to enable accurate modelling of future scenarios.

We also need to be able to provide information in "real time" to assist decision making processes, and support future trading opportunities. Improved database systems would allow better management of freshwater in a more holistic way.

The ability to integrate things such as quality and quantity, flows, both ground and surface water resources and climate change projections are all seen as important information for those who use the resource, and those who make the allocation decisions.

It would also enable more constructive discussions around the issue of storage, both natural (ie, underground aquifers) and engineered (dams).

Both groundwater and surface water are recognised as different bodies of the same resource, but we need to better understand the linkages between the two.

Noting the ongoing arguments around the country over water storage projects, there is an urgent need to better inform our discussions and actions, in order to prevent over capitalisation and the creation of stranded economic assets, both at the property and processing level.

A planned transition to any new freshwater allocation system is important.

No one tool will serve to solve the issue on it's own.

This strategy is intended to inform future plan reviews and put us in a strong position to enter into discussions with central government to get a better water management framework for the region.

¦The full strategy is available to view at www.letstalkwater.nz