Rachel Keedwell: New freshwater standards on way for Horizons Regional Council

Locals enjoying the Manawatū River at Ahimate Park in Palmerston North.

Opinion:

Swimming in the river is one of my favourite parts of summer and I note the decreasing day length and the first twinge of colour on the trees with some regret because it signals the end of the swimming season.

My favourite swim spot is at Ahimate Park on the Manawatū River, not far from where I live.

If you want to explore where the best swim spots are near you, then make sure you explore the Land Air Water Aotearoa website at www.lawa.org.nz. In the section Can I swim here? it shows all the monitored swimspots in the region and across the country. The website uses a traffic light system to indicate whether a swimspot is safe for swimming or not, based on bacteria presence.

It also shows what proportion of the time each swim spot is swimmable, which gives a fairly clear indication of the health of that waterway. Unfortunately, our rivers, coasts and lakes are far from swimmable 100 per cent of the time so this monitoring can help us choose where and when it is safe to swim.

The Land Air Water Aotearoa website also provides a range of other data showing the health of our waterway. While there are some sites that are looking good and the trends are improving, there are a number of water bodies that have some way to go to obtain full health.

This need to improve our waterways across the country has been increasingly recognised over the past decade. Central government is addressing this with its Essential Freshwater package.

As a result, Horizons has to rewrite the freshwater section of the One Plan to enact these new freshwater standards. We have to have a new plan formalised by the end of 2024 and our first steps in this process are talking with all of our communities.

This is an opportunity for you to let us know what is important to you and for us as a community to discuss and come to agreement on what standards we want for our waterways now and for future generations.

There will be multiple opportunities to convey your thoughts about this both informally in this initial stage of the process, and you can also engage at the official plan-making stage later in the process.

Our staff have been active at numerous public events across the region gathering views from the community. This weekend, Horizons will be at the CD Field Days at Manfeild Park in Feilding so drop into the Horizons stand and talk to us about what you value.

• Rachel Keedwell is chairwoman of Horizons Regional Council.