Letters: Water use worries

A reader discusses dealing with the Motutangi-Waiharara Water Users Group (MWWUG).

The Motutangi-Waiharara Water Users Group (MWWUG) are a group of property owners in the Far North who have combined their resources in their quest for consents from the Northland Regional Council (NRC) to use underground water for irrigation.

If the MWWUG are granted all the water they are asking for, no one else in some of the areas the MWWUG operate in will be allowed a consent for underground water.

This is because all the available underground water in that area would have been allocated by the NRC using their current guidelines for giving underground water consents.

The actions of the MWWUG make good business sense if you are one of their members. It is not illegal, occurs elsewhere in this country and all over the world. Some call it water banking, basically locking up water for future use.

It is an easy way of increasing the value of a property because a property with a water consent is far more desirable to potential buyers. If you choose not to use your total water allocation on your own property, it creates the possibility of trading your water with your neighbours for profit.

The NRC is still doing its main role of protecting our resources, it is not obliged to do what is fair. But the NRC is concerned enough about the actions of the MWWUG that it has sent out over 1000 submission forms to those potentially affected.

If you live between Kauri Flat and Houhora and have received a submission form, you have until this Friday, November 24, to return that form to the NRC.

The scale and the ramifications of the proposal from the MWWUG greatly concerns those of us who have been attempting to protect our underground water supply for several decades.

If you also are concerned about this issue your only chance of expressing those concerns are through your own submission form.

RICHARD SUCICH
Waipapakauri