Councillor urges more action on waterways

Nicola Patrick would like Government to get serious about the health of freshwater. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Government has moved the goalposts to achieve its aim of 90 per cent swimmable waterways faster, Whanganui's Nicola Patrick says.

Water quality is one of her main concerns, and she said Mowhanau Stream where her children like to play is still rated unhealthy 25 per cent of the time.

In changes to the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management announced on Thursday the Government gave way to pressure to make swimmability rather than wadeability the aim for freshwater.

It wants 90 per cent of freshwater to be of swimmable standard by 2040 - at an estimated cost of $2 billion.

But the revised policy also changed the definition of what was swimmable.

"What they're doing is saying what's currently amber (could be a health risk) is now fine," Ms Patrick said.

Health risk in swimming water is usually measured by the number of e.coli bacteria in 100ml of water.

The presence of the faecal bacteria indicates diseases like cryptosporidium, giardia and salmonella may be present.

If there are less than 260 per 100ml the water is good for swimming. Between 260 and 540 the water gets an amber light, for caution.

It means there's a 5 per cent or one in 20 risk of getting ill.

If there are more than 540 bacteria per 100ml then swimming should be avoided.

Algal blooms can also make water unsafe for swimming, Ms Patrick said, but they are not part of the new criteria.

She liked Government's announcement of a Freshwater Improvement Fund of $100 million over 10 years, and the way it has added instream life as a measure of the health of a waterway.

"The ecological health is important too. It's the mauri, the life force, of water."

Through her role as a Horizons Region councillor, she's been told the amount of bacteria, sediment and nutrients in the Manawatu River has reduced markedly over the past 10 years.

That river has had $46 million spent on improving it during that time. Ms Patrick said freshwater in this end of the region was also getting better, though not as fast.

Government's announcement included new national regulations to keep stock out of waterways.

Ms Patrick said she regularly got phone calls from people concerned about seeing cattle in streams.

Dairy cows are almost completely excluded from waterways. The ones people were seeing were almost always beef cattle.

"For most reasonable people a cow is a cow is a cow. They're still having impact."

She'd like improvement to water to happen faster.

"We will never get reasonable change unless we push really hard."