Politicians Must Act on the Young Generation’s Call for Clean Water
13 October 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Politicians from all parties are being urged to act decisively to improve the quality of New Zealand’s rivers, lakes and
streams and protect public health following today’s plea to a select committee from the student-led Clean Water
Campaign.
Choose Clean Water campaigners Marnie Prickett, Kyleisha Foote and Tom Kay today appeared before the Local Government
and Environment select committee, calling on MPs to reject the government’s controversial standard requiring freshwater
to be only wadeable.
Students from Kapiti College also made a submission on water quality to the select committee.
Choose Clean Water says all political parties should find the courage to protect freshwater for the next generation and
require all waterways to be swimmable.
Marnie Prickett told the committee the government’s proposed wadeable standard is unacceptable and poses a public health
risk, particularly for children. She told the select committee that wadeable means that one in every 20 people using a
waterway risks falling ill from campylobacter infection.
Choose Clean Water asked the committee to refer the water quality issue to the Health Select Committee.
Fish & Game chief executive Bryce Johnson, who attended today’s select committee hearing as an observer, says the message
delivered to MPs was powerful and direct.
“The submissions from the Choose Clean Water campaigners and the Kapiti College students were eloquent, impassioned and
moving. Select committee members need to pay careful attention to what the next generation is saying as these young
people have the most to lose,” says Mr Johnson.
Bryce Johnson says the MPs should take careful note of the fact that the Choose Clean Water campaign is being driven by
young New Zealanders who are seriously worried about the country they will inherit.
“Young people have today bluntly told Parliament they are not happy with the legacy they are being left. They don’t want
water that is unsafe to swim in and is an ongoing threat to their health. Parliament has to start doing something
meaningful and constructive to protect our freshwater before it is too late,” he says.
“If rivers only have to be wadeable they will be lost for ever as polluters will ensure our waterways will always be at
that low standard.
“The Havelock North water contamination debacle should be a wakeup call. Water quality is deteriorating and New
Zealanders don’t want their health threatened by the government’s failure to act,” Mr Johnson says.
Bryce Johnson says decisive action on the issue makes economic sense.
“New Zealand’s wealth and health relies heavily on clean fresh water. At the very least, preserving water quality should
be a straight commercial decision to protect New Zealanders’ health and culture and the country’s internationally unique
marketing point of difference”, Mr Johnson says.
Fish & Game is also backing the Choose Clean Water Campaign’s call for the water quality issue to be referred to the Health
Select Committee.
“This whole debate over swimmability versus wadeability is actually a public health issue more than a simple
environmental question. It is logical that people falling ill after drinking water or swimming in it should be
considered by the Health Select Committee,” Bryce Johnson says.
Fish & Game says present and future governments must make clean, swimmable water a national priority.
ENDS