NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Kapiti News

Opinion: Restoration of critical waterway an important mission

By K Gurunathan
Kapiti News·
22 Nov, 2021 07:40 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Waikanae Ki Uta Ki Tai (From the Mountains to the Sea) is a holistic approach to the restoration of the Waikanae River.

Waikanae Ki Uta Ki Tai (From the Mountains to the Sea) is a holistic approach to the restoration of the Waikanae River.

Weekly column by Kāpiti Mayor K. Gurunathan.

Last Friday a partnership of local iwi and three government agencies released a document proposing a unique approach for the revitalisation of the Waikanae River.

Waikanae Ki Uta Ki Tai (From the Mountains to the Sea) is a holistic approach to the restoration of this critical waterway. The waterway that supplies water to 40,000 Kāpiti residents and businesses in the urban centre of the district. Serving the communities of Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Raumati.

Mana whenua Te Atiawa Ki Whakarongotai has been shaping its traditional relationship with the river for the past five years. Three years ago, with the support of DoC, the regional council, and KCDC, the initial approach was taken to community stakeholder groups for a wider discussion.

The first stakeholders hui saw the then Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage, challenge participants to have the stamina to undertake the long journey to understanding their relationship with the river. The values-based approach aims to encourage a community working together in partnership to enhance the life force of the river that supports the biodiversity and the communities and businesses dependent on it. And through this, increase the capacity of the river to support our communities.

The understanding of the river is basically threefold. Firstly, the experience of the river as a flowing visible phenomenon from the mountains to the sea. Secondly, there is the hidden river in the form of underground flows. Some of these percolating into shallow and deep aquifers. These aquifers can hold water as old as 400 years. Thirdly, there is the additional understanding of the water from the river extracted by pumps directed to treatment plants and fed through reticulation pipes to residential homes and businesses. Wastewater and stormwater systems then direct the used water back into the river.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

What this holistic approach reveals is captured by the Māori proverb Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au, which means I am the river, the river is me. When you consider the fact that the water from the river is used for drinking and cooking, you can understand the concept of the river flowing through us.

This understanding of the river is a complex relationship of ourselves as individuals, families and communities with the river for our sustenance, recreation, its biodiversity, bush and landforms, and the understanding that the destruction of the bush in the catchment, pollutants from our stormwater and wastewater system not only poisons the life force of the river it directly poisons us.

Unbridled growth can also lead to overtaxing the capacity of the river. It's interesting to note that the council has been consulting on our growth strategy. Any growth strategy has to be underpinned by the capacity of our natural environment to support this growth. The other important factor to consider is the understanding of our relationship with the river as the source of our sustainable life and the Māori concept of "I am the river, the river is me", and how this will be affected by the Government's Three Waters reform.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

If our communities are entrenched into this sustainable, holistic and even spiritual relationship with the river, how can this relationship survive the alienation of our "assets" to an amalgamated entity where we don't have an "ownership" of the river and the river does not have an "ownership" over us.

The danger the Three Waters reform poses to the holistic and organic approach proposed by the Waikanae Ki Uta Ki Tai vision is the potential alienation of this intimate environmental relationship because the levers of management will be taken out of the hands of local communities.

We need to look at ways to navigate through this potential danger to the unique vision proposed by this partnership between our communities, government agencies and mana whenua.

When the then Minister of Conservation challenged us to have the stamina and fortitude for the long journey, there was no navigation chart. As a community we need to chart our own.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Kapiti News

Kapiti News

Mumpreneur revolutionises property management

Kapiti News

Kāpiti news in brief: Award-winning nature photo features rare bird nesting

Kapiti News

Beloved Paraparaumu College teachers bid farewell after long service


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Kapiti News

Mumpreneur revolutionises property management
Kapiti News

Mumpreneur revolutionises property management

How Chelsea Gill created a family-friendly business.

15 Dec 11:30 PM
Kāpiti news in brief: Award-winning nature photo features rare bird nesting
Kapiti News

Kāpiti news in brief: Award-winning nature photo features rare bird nesting

12 Dec 10:48 PM
Beloved Paraparaumu College teachers bid farewell after long service
Kapiti News

Beloved Paraparaumu College teachers bid farewell after long service

11 Dec 10:15 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP