Water NZ Supports 4th LAWF Report

Water New Zealand today announced its support for the 4th Land and Water Forum Report and urges government to complete implementing the Forum’s recommendations as soon as possible.

“We are pleased to see the progress made in the recommendations, particularly introducing volumetric metering for households in urban areas of strong growth which we explored in some depth at our recent annual conference,” said John Pfahlert, CEO of Water New Zealand. “It is essential if we are to use water conservatively in high population areas,” he said.

Water New Zealand has also taken a pro-active approach to developing shared metadata standards across the country for three waters and strongly agrees with the Report’s findings that rolling out national multi-purpose data and models will reduce costs and maximise the benefits of knowledge in the water industry.

Peter Whitehouse, policy manager at Water New Zealand, and member of the Small Group of the Forum, commented on the Report and said: “In regard to access to high reliability water, we agree that metropolitan commercial users should be treated the same as commercial users outside municipalities. We are also pleased to note that trade waste by-laws will encourage or require pre-treatment and recycling of commercial waste before disposal into municipal wastewater systems. This will go another step to improving urban water quality.”

Water New Zealand also agrees with the recommendation that councils align all metropolitan infrastructure – roads, residential development and three waters to ensure water quality standards are met. “This holistic approach to infrastructure development in towns and cities will ensure that as the population grows in urban areas that water quality is maintained and is central to planning,” said Mr Pfahlert.

In regard to Iwi Rights and Water, Water New Zealand supports the Forum’s suggestion that the responsibility for reaching agreement on how to recognise iwi rights and interests in water rests with the Crown and Iwi.

ENDS

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