Freshwater

While Aotearoa New Zealand has plenty of freshwater, we are heavy users of it. Intensification from urbanisation and agricultural land use, particularly dairy farming and horticulture, has contributed to water bodies becoming polluted in many catchments. We are degrading the mauri of freshwater and its life-supporting capacity. 

Find out what models are in use and how they are used by councils to manage freshwater, as well as five recommendations to safeguard our precious water resource for our moko and future generations.

Watch the Commissioner present the freshwater modelling report to the Environment Committee.

Water quality is a serious environmental issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, and nutrient losses from farms have an impact on our rivers, lakes and estuaries. As the country looks to improve the state of its waterways, an important part of the regulatory puzzle is how we manage pollution sources.

Estuaries receive and accumulate large amounts of whatever reaches them. Yet they fall between the cracks of our siloed management. We need to manage our estuaries in a way that treats them and the waterways that feed into them as a single entity from the mountains to the sea, ki uta ki tai.

Our estuaries are very special places. They are transitional zones where freshwater meets saltwater and a new ecosystem forms. They filter our water. They are a nursery for freshwater and marine animals, and are also where we work, live, play and mahinga kai. However, many of our estuaries are suffering from the things we do in and around them.

The Commissioner has written to the Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation and Otago Regional Council outlining his concerns about the declining health of the iconic deepwater alpine lakes. He asks for details on monitoring, management, community engagement and action being taken.