Talking Point: Extend consultation over increased CHB water take

Dr Trevor Le Lievre says water is the new gold of the 21st century. Photo / File

Water is the new gold of the 21st century, insofar as it is increasingly being sought by those with economic power as a means to increase their wealth.

However, unlike gold, this natural resource is an essential requirement to sustain life on planet earth.

For this reason, water is often referred to as 'water commons', meaning it is available for use by all humanity and ecosystems, to be judiciously managed for the benefit of present and future generations.

Alas, because humans are fallible and inclined to be greedy, the management of this finite resource is delegated to elected officials who are accountable to the wider population.

Locally, it is our regional council that is delegated a licence by society – a 'social licence' – to manage water quality and to issue consents for its use, to ensure that it is neither degraded nor depleted.

Tragically for the water commons, in my view successive councils have failed abysmally in discharging both of these most basic of tasks.

In Central Hawke's Bay the Ruataniwha aquifer is over-allocated, I believe.

Excessive demand for water coincided with the introduction of large-scale irrigation for intensive dairying in around 2004, and the issuing of new consents was halted in around 2012 – too late.

In the halcyon days, councils were issuing consents to large dairying ventures.

The upshot? Big dairy farms now take the lion's share of water to irrigate stony soils through the summer months, at no cost to their business besides infrastructure establishment and operational outgoings.

As compensation, we get toxic nitrates leaching into our waterways from both cow urine and synthetic fertilisers.

Methane emissions are an added bonus.

In my view, there is currently no political will to enact the logical response, to claw back allocations and compensate consent holders, as councils defer to the power of vested-interest corporate agribusiness.

The regional council has discovered a fresh means to placate corporate farming's insatiable appetite for water.

'Tranche 2' denotes 15 million m3 of water contained in a deeper part of the aquifer, which the council says is available right now for allocation.

I believe eight farming ventures have applied for consents.

One applicant, a dairy enterprise, is seeking 3.7 million m3, on top of its current allocation of 4.7 million m3 from both the aquifer and river.

If the Tranche 2 allocation is granted, this will total an insane 8.4 million m3, well over the 5.7 million m3 water currently consented for all the townships of Central Hawke's Bay.

If granted, this will be more than twice the 3.2 million m3 water currently consented for the townships of Central Hawke's Bay.

The Resource Management Act requires the council to publically consult, before hearing these consent applications.

Local newspaper advertisements have recently appeared, with public submissions closing on Friday, December 17.

This barely meets the minimum 20 days' required notice, with the expectation that ratepayers will comprehend a complex set of issues and then draft submissions, heading into the busiest time of the year.

I believe the council has forfeited its social licence to grant these additional consents, given its historical mismanagement of our aquifer.

Our councillors must extend this consultation period into 2022, and fully explain this proposal to constituents in town hall meetings around Central Hawke's Bay.

Only then, having secured the backing of a majority of fully-informed constituents, can they be permitted to proceed with what many now consider to be yet another breach of their responsibility to sustainably manage the water commons.

Dr Trevor Le Lievre holds a PhD in politics. He resides in CHB and is passionate about local environmental issues