Forest & Bird uncovers Government plan to push irrigation

Independent conservation organisation Forest & Bird is concerned that Government papers it obtained reveal the Government had longstanding plans to abolish Environment Canterbury to fast-track large-scale irrigation.

Papers obtained by Forest & Bird under the Official Information Act show that from September last year briefings to Ministers and Cabinet papers focussed on the Hurunui and Rakaia rivers and how the Crown could help remove “blockages” to their progress.

“The Government was looking for a way to fast-track irrigation in Canterbury and undermine protection of the region’s over-allocated rivers,” Forest & Bird Canterbury Field Officer Jen Miller says.

“The Wyatt Creech-led inquiry into ECan’s performance appears to have been a convenient and expedient way to enable the Government to take control of Canterbury’s rivers. It had little to do with ECan’s ability to function.”

The papers identified the “blockages” as water conservation orders (which protect rivers) and council processes. The briefing papers to the Minister of Agriculture acknowledged that the proposals would not go ahead without changing the water conservation orders proposed for the Hurunui and in place for the Rakaia.

The briefing papers note that the Canterbury Water Management Strategy – which tried to include and bring together all parties with interests in water – was working but too slowly to allow large-scale irrigation and water storage to progress as fast as the Ministers wanted.

“Water conservation orders protect rivers and other waterways in the same way that national
parks protect land,” Jen Miller says. “Forest & Bird has deep concerns about the Government’s plans for other rivers in New Zealand because it would appear there is an intention to vary the purpose of the water conservation orders nationally.

“We can’t continue to increase the demands made on our rivers to provide water to expand the dairy industry. The impact of dairying on the environment is well recognised and there are natural limits on how much the industry can expand.

“Our braided rivers are unique. They are the homes of endangered birds such as black stilts and wrybills These rivers should be protected, not reduced to trickles where birds, fish and other creatures cannot survive.”

ENDS

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