Greens welcome Heretaunga Plains water hui in Hawke's Bay

Dr Mike Joy says water ownership issues are already being debated through the Waitangi Tribunal claims process, but any action to address water quality was welcome.

A joint summit on Heretaunga Plains water issues is an opportunity to start changing the way people think about water, says Green Party water spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty.

"I am fully in favour of this approach, I think it's overdue," she said yesterday after the announcement on Friday that the Hastings District Council, Hawke's Bay Regional Council and Ngati Kahungunu intend to hold a hui in March to have a public conversation about water issues.

In a joint statement, Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule, regional council chair Rex Graham and Ngati Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana said the allocation, protection, mana and sustainability of water required a big shift in priority.

"It is time for us to change the conversation from 'nobody owns water' to everybody owns the water," they said.

Ms Delahunty said Hawke's Bay was at the front line of a number of water issues that were being grappled with across the country.

"It's a really critical start - Hawke's Bay has got to make decisions that protect water sources - we can't have another Havelock North situation," she said.

The water allocation model being used around the country had failed, she added.
"The Government needs to come to the party and stop treating it as a resource to be allocated - there needs to be a different driver - not just who gets access, but how we sustain it."

Freshwater ecologist Mike Joy said it sounded like a good idea, but in terms of water ownership he said work was already underway with Wai 2358: National Freshwater and Geothermal Resources Claim being heard by the Waitangi Tribunal.

Wai 2358 is about the Crown's resource management reforms, which the claimants say are happening without a plan to recognise and provide for Maori rights and interests in water.

Dr Joy said he gave evidence last month that the Crown had failed to protect fresh water.

"Under the Treaty it seems quite clear that Maori never ceded their ownership to water and a part of the Treaty was for the Crown to protect water - my evidence is that they quite clearly haven't."

The water ownership issue was one politicians were keen to steer away from, he added.
"No politician wants to take it on, and to say no one owns it is a way not to face the issue."

Labour's Tukituki candidate, Anna Lorck, who has been calling on people to have their say on water bottling, said she thought it was great that the region's captains were getting into their different ships to navigate a course through the same sea.

"As a community we need to put the wind into their sails as to the direction we want to see them take."

All water issues were interconnected, she said, and couldn't be dealt with in isolation.
The debate around water bottling, and giving it away for free, was one of those issues and she called for the public to support community action to "turn the tap off" and do more to protect water.

"Right now Hawke's Bay is in the strongest position of any region in New Zealand to lead change."

As a starting point, Ms Lorck called for more people to push for the Hawke's Bay Regional Council to start publicly notifying water-bottling consents.

By getting more support for this community action, she said, the people could have a voice at the upcoming hui.

"It's what action comes from this hui that will be exciting, and that's what will be sent to the decision-makers in central Government."