Marnie Prickett: NZ's shocking freshwater issues

For a month this summer, our group of five travelled the country to document the stories of New Zealanders dealing with destruction of our rivers and lakes, and urge the government to prioritise the health of all New Zealanders by raising the minimum standard for waterways to swimmable.

The Choose Clean Water tour was a moving, distressing and motivating experience for us as young Kiwis.

We were shocked by the extent of our freshwater issues and at how desperate New Zealanders feel in the face of them.

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No region is unaffected by serious pollution of rivers, lakes, and precious groundwater.

We could have spent a year on the road and still not have visited all the places where the loss of clean, safe freshwater is impacting people's lives.

Kiwis are being forced to watch as the places they love, their lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries, are destroyed in front of their eyes.

These are the places their families have spent summers for generations, where they have caught and collected food for hundreds of years.

Almost everyone we talked with us that when they speak up about it, when they ask that the water not be polluted (in many cases their drinking water as well as water they swim in), they are told their views are extreme or are simply ignored by the local, regional and central government.

Ordinary Kiwis everywhere saying "Please don't pollute our water" are not heard. In some cases they have been saying this for a decade.

We saw authorities claim there is no problem.

An example is the response of Hawke's Bay Regional Council to mass eel and fish deaths in Lake Tutira in January.

First, they reported it was a climate event that killed the wildlife and there was no concern for human safety.

A week later, they reported it was unsafe for people and that no one should swim there.
Later, another round of wildlife deaths occurred and they finally admitted that the lake had been "plagued by pollution for decades".

Another example is from the Ministry for the Environment that reported their national water quality data showed most monitored sites were not in decline.

Later it was proved that this was due to the small amount of monitoring data the ministry chose to analyse.

Their conclusion that water quality was "stable" didn't show the reality on the ground but the selective information the Ministry chose to report on.

The lived experience of the New Zealanders we met, their everyday interactions with lakes and rivers, means they have an intimate understanding of the damage we have inflicted on our water.

People we interviewed know they can no longer swim, they know the fish numbers have decreased, they know they're no longer seeing the wildlife they once commonly saw, they walk across dry river beds where their children once swam.

In Hurunui, people see the "crunchy, yellow water" coming out of their taps.

New Zealanders in all regions we visited understand this crisis deeply.

We are heart-broken.

We look ahead to dirtier, unsafe water; more rivers and lakes lost and know that we must do something about it.

While it's good to hear Minister for the Environment Nick Smith acknowledging that New Zealand does have a freshwater problem, initiatives revealed in the weekend by Smith and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy aim low. Our waterways are still allowed to be so polluted they are only "wadeable", meaning they're not safe for kids to splash around in.

The $100 million for cleaning up is welcome but drop in the bucket when we consider that $144 million has been put forward for the restoration of four Rotorua Lakes alone.

What costs do we face by setting such low goals for our country?

Costs, not just to clean up, but to health, lives and livelihoods, the well-being of our children, our wildlife and land.

Environment Minister Nick Smith said that the high standard of swimmable lakes and rivers isn't realistic but his reasons why seem strange and not well thought out.

One is that not all of our waterways are large enough to swim in.

Choosing swimmable rivers does not mean that we take a digger to streams so they can all be dived into.

Our mightiest rivers start as gentle trickles.

Those small streams join to create larger ones that meet to create the rivers or fill our lakes or replenish groundwater.

Keeping the small ones healthy is the way we keep the big ones safe for the people who want to swim in them, the fish that rely on them and our industries that need clean water to survive.

Dr Smith also said that the cost of high standards is prohibitive.

But again, what is the cost of setting standards so low? Do we decide we pay these costs by letting children get sick, or by allowing wildlife that live only in New Zealand to die out?

Do we condemn some of our communities to drinking water that "makes people's hair fall out" like in Hurunui?

Do we decide that the outdoors culture that is deep within us as New Zealanders can be tossed out?

That the beauty that brings tourists and migrants to the bottom of the world and that we have so much pride in, can only exist the furthest reaches of our country far from where most of us live?

Do we decide not to take responsibility now and instead leave our young people with crippling environmental debt?

Poet and activist Brian Turner has made the point that with New Zealand's small population and geographic isolation, if we can't protect freshwater here, where can it be done? Let us be the leaders we know we can be.

As young New Zealanders, we are dedicated to this country.

We love it, love the people and places.

But we look ahead and see our lives and livelihoods in serious trouble with our most fundamental resource in documented decline.

How will we earn an income in a country whose competitive advantage has for the last 100 years been its intact environment?

As an Agricultural Sciences student, I include our primary industries in this.

New Zealand can and should be leading the way.

We can show the world how to work smarter with our land and water to keep it healthy, intact and thriving.

We need to come together, to bridge the divide that has developed through this issue between urban and rural communities, environmentalists and farmers.

These divides are not real. We all want the same thing.

We want clean water for our families.

Aiming high together is the way this is going to work.

We take responsibility for our whole country, the beautiful pristine parts that remain intact and the polluted drains many rivers and lakes have become.

Strong freshwater legislation establishes the vital goal of protecting freshwater and leaving it in good nick for our kids.

The priority for all New Zealanders is the health of their families and the only way we can have this is by protecting water.

As a nation we choose clean water.

We rely on our leaders to make our priority clear in the law.

It's that simple. But it must happen now.

• Marnie Prickett, Choose Clean Water tour spokesperson. Choose Clean Water will be presenting their petition to parliament on Tuesday 29 March. For more information: marnie@choosecleanwater.org.nz or "Choose Clean Water Tour" on Facebook.
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