Mike Finlayson: Water under pressure

Mike Finlayson

Water, one of the elements most essential to life, is now getting the attention it deserves after a flurry of national and international reports condemning the state of our waterways. New Zealand is abundantly blessed with water, but we haven't looked after it well, and that fact is now coming back to bite us.

Tourism, which relies on our 'clean green' image, has just overtaken dairy as New Zealand's single biggest earner. It is perversely ironic that dairy, especially the intensive variety, is a significant cause of the degradation of water quality in our rivers, lakes and estuaries, some of the very things that attract tourists here in the first place.

The impacts of this are wider than just foreign exchange earnings; it is threatening our quality of life in a number of ways. Is what you're drinking fresh, or has it been made clean by ample doses of chlorine? What exactly is 'swimmable?' What of all the things that live there, our native fish and invertebrates?

The answers are challenging. Seventy-two per cent of our native fish are threatened with extinction, as are 33 per cent of our freshwater plants and invertebrates. (No more whitebait fritters). Many Kiwis are finding their shellfish polluted by extreme E coli levels, making them dangerous to eat.

The blame game doesn't help either, with farmers and urbanites pointing the finger at each other.

Between 1994 and 2015 dairy cattle increased by 69 per cent, to 6.5 million, causing nitrogen and phosphorus levels to rise, along with increasing sedimentation.

Urban water quality is by far the worst, but covers only 1 per cent of the land and 87 per cent of the population. Pastoral activities cover 40 per cent, and this is where we are seeing big negative trends. Between 1994 and 2015 dairy cattle increased by 69 per cent, to 6.5 million, causing nitrogen and phosphorus levels to rise, along with increasing sedimentation.

Nathan Guy, Minister for Primary Industries, has said there is a limit to further dairy intensification. This is something renowned freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy has been saying for two decades. Minister Guy says increasing the value of (dairy) products rather than volume is the way to grow.

Ideally the premium that organic producers receive would top my list, but there are other options. 'Biological' farming, where chemicals like urea are replaced by more natural fertilisers, show increases in soil health, grass roots growth, and a wider variety of pasture grasses help achieve a better-quality product. It also makes for healthier, happier cows that leach less nitrogen.

Increased soil health translates into less sedimentation in waterways.

Your regional council is here to balance economic development with environmental protection. Let's get it right.

Email mikef@nrc.govt.nz