Comment: Manawatū River Leaders Forum successful model, but its work not yet done

The Stairway of Tāne overlooking the Manawatū River. Photo / ManawatuNZ.co.nz

OPINION:

Many of you will remember the headline from more than a decade ago that said the Manawatū River was one of the most polluted in the world. There is some debate about the exact accuracy of the headline, but it is true the river was in poor shape and was going to continue to get worse unless something was done about it.

That headline acted as a catalyst to instigate change.

As a result, the Manawatū River Leaders Forum was formed and the numerous member groups – from councils to iwi, industry, landowners and many others – signed an accord in 2011 and formulated an action plan that contained more than 100 actions individual parties committed to carry out.

There were some difficult discussions when forum members first got together, but what it led to was having honest conversations about the state of the river and progressing to the point of working out what to do about it, rather than just pointing fingers about whose fault it was we were in the current situation.

A second generation of the action plan was developed in 2016 and, earlier this month - five years later, forum members got together to look at refreshing and updating the accord.

Long-time independent chairman Richard Thompson, who had been instrumental in getting parties around the table, stepped down and the forum is moving towards a co-governance approach with myself and Danielle Harris of Rangitāne taking on the role of co-chairs.

At this recent meeting, it was acknowledged some good work has been carried out, but we are far from done. Science was presented that showed water quality in some areas of the catchment is still below national bottom lines or is continuing to decline. The headwaters of the catchment are generally in close to pristine condition, but the further downstream you go from the sources of the river, the more the negative impacts of land use, industry and urban settlements become visible.

Although our work is not done, we know the model of the accord has been successful in instigating change. Since its inception, more than $66 million has been invested in accord initiatives and a sizeable chunk of this came from central government. An unexpected outcome was the strength of the relationships that have developed out of the forum, leading to further partnerships and collaboration.

We cannot yet celebrate our end-goal of seeing the river back to full health. No single action led to the decline of water quality and no single solution will fix it. This renewing of the accord is but one more step along the journey and we need to plan what the next steps are that will make the most difference to the health of the river.

• Rachel Keedwell is chairwoman of Horizons Regional Council.