A new MfE report released today on the state of New Zealand’s freshwater, called Our Freshwater 2023, highlights the widespread impacts of intensive dairying on the environment and people’s health, and should spur the Government to act, says Greenpeace Aotearoa.

"It should be a real wake-up call for the Government to see yet another report directly connecting the dots between intensive dairying, human health and environmental degradation," says Greenpeace campaigner Christine Rose.

The report shows a downward trend in the health of fresh water across the country, but especially in rural areas, and there is a clear focus on one major polluter: the agriculture industry, and especially intensive dairy.

"The dairy industry, led by Fonterra, is killing once-healthy rivers and waterways, and contaminating people’s drinking water," says Rose. "This is a profit-driven industry willing to sacrifice our life-support systems for the sake of maximising production."

"Everyone should be able to swim and collect kai in clean rivers, see native fish returning to local streams, and feel safe to drink water from the kitchen tap, but the dairy industry is taking all that away from us."

The report makes this clear, stating that "water quality is more degraded when there is more high-intensity pasture and horticultural land upstream".

While the report focuses primarily on waterways, Greenpeace says that things are even worse. The organisation’s own testing has shown high levels of nitrate contamination in many rural household bores, with many testing above the limits set by the Ministry, let alone the much lower safe limits recommended by scientists."Nobody should have to wonder if the water from their kitchen tap could be making them or their family sick but for many rural families, that is the reality."

A growing body of scientific evidence has found links between nitrate contamination of water and a host of potential health impacts, from bowel cancer to premature births, and scientists warn that rural people are the most likely to be exposed to hazardous levels of nitrate. "We’ve been testing people’s water in rural areas around the country to give them the information they need to protect their health, and some of the results have been alarming," says Rose.

"Everyone has the right to a healthy environment that is safe both now and in the future. Nitrate contamination in waterways and drinking water puts that at risk."

Greenpeace is about to return to Southland and Canterbury to offer three more nitrate water testing events in the communities of Lumsden, Gore and Ashburton on April 18, 19 and 22 respectively.

"The MfE report is clear: things cannot continue the way that they are. Waterways, ecosystems, and our health are all at risk. The Government must take urgent action to protect us all from the harm done by the dairy industry.

"Rapid deintensification of the dairy industry is critical to making that change. That means decreasing the number of cows, cutting synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, and transitioning to a way of farming that works with, instead of against, nature."

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