Ian McNab at the meeting held in Dannevirke last week. Photo / Supplied
Ian McNab at the meeting held in Dannevirke last week. Photo / Supplied
How freshwater management will look in the future is an issue that affects all water users, farmers were told at a meeting in Dannevirke last week.
Horizons Regional Council has been holding meetings with farmers and others in rural communities to tell them about freshwater reforms and what they meantfor the One Plan.
One Plan was the council's resource management planning document for the region, which covered areas from Ruapehu and Horowhenua and Whanganui to Tararua District.
Rural advisor Ian McNab said freshwater reforms were introduced in 2020 by central Government and included National Environmental Standards and the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.
Oranga Wai – our freshwater future, was Horizons' method to represent all the policy and regulations included in the Government's freshwater package.
Senior policy analyst Helen Brown had been working with the national policy statement for a couple of years.
She said it was basically the "road map" given by central Government where Horizons would look at the management of freshwater in the region.
The statement covered areas such as water quality in rivers, lakes and groundwater, water quantity and allocation, monitoring of wetlands and habitats for threatened species.
One of the key concepts of the plan was Te mana o te wai, or the importance of managing freshwater so that freshwater could look after the environment, Brown said.
The health and wellbeing of freshwater ecosystems is the number one priority. Photo / NZME
"The health and wellbeing of freshwater bodies and freshwater ecosystems becomes the number one priority."
She said people's health needs and the economic, social and cultural needs of the community were next.
Horizons would be reviewing the One Plan to incorporate the new requirements, but the steps taken would be up to the community, iwi and the council.
Brown said there might be stricter rules for some activities, as well as higher limits, although it was too early to say categorically what those would entail.
"There is going to be a lot of work done between now and 2024 to make sure that as much as we can we get a better situation."
She said there would be more opportunities for communities to have input into the procedure.
"We want input across the board."
When asked if that included anyone within the township of Dannevirke, she confirmed that the document applied to any water user in any area, whether rural, urban or industrial and included stormwater and wastewater.
"All that will be looked at and they will be as accountable as everybody else."
Senior water quality scientist Mike Patterson talked about the process and what was required under the policy framework.
He said they were engaging with communities to get community visions and aspirations.
"[We're trying to] make it into something we can measure and understand and we can pick apart to understand how to make things better to meet the visions and objectives we want to achieve."
Such engagement would include looking at what people wanted for their waterways, whether in activities like swimming or fishing, or in farming and irrigation.
Further meetings would be held within the region with one being held in Levin on Friday and the last one to be held in Taumarunui on November 10.
McNab said a large focus of the meetings was on the national policy statement on freshwater management, but updates on the national environmental standards would also be shared.
He said this would include information about nitrogen reporting, intensive winter grazing and freshwater farm plans.
"We really hope farmers and members of the wider rural community come along as there has been and will continue to be change required of farm operations. It's important that these communities are aware of the changes and engagement rounds so they know when they can be involved."
A report on engagement feedback was due early 2024 and the freshwater plan change was expected to be notified by December 2024.
