New Stats NZ Groundwater Reporting Highlights Serious Risk To Public From Govt Proposal To Weaken Freshwater Protections

Scoop

5 days ago

Stats NZ's latest groundwater reporting shows New Zealanders are already at risk from contaminated drinking water sources and highlights the threat to the public should the Government continue with its proposals to weaken policy that protects freshwater, says campaign group Choose Clean Water.
'The Government is consulting on plans to remove the prioritisation of the health of waterways and protection of drinking water sources in current freshwater policy and instead change it to give power to commercial polluters of freshwater.
'Given the state of our groundwater, where many of our communities draw their drinking water from, this Government proposal will inevitably increase the health risks to people. It's unbelievably irresponsible.' says Choose Clean Water spokesperson Tom Kay.
The new Stats NZ groundwater quality reporting presents monitoring data for groundwater sites across the country between 2019 and 2024. It shows the Maximum Allowable Values for New Zealand drinking water were exceeded at least once between April 2019 and March 2024 at 45.1 percent of sites (450 of 998) for E. coli and 12.4 percent of sites (146 of 1173) for nitrate.
Almost half of the monitoring sites show likely or very likely increasing trends in nitrate.
Stats NZ says groundwater provides drinking water to nearly half of the population.
'Healthy water bodies provide safe, good quality drinking water. Where groundwater quality is contaminated, we need strong policy that prioritises the public interest in healthy water. Otherwise, communities will struggle to access safe, good quality drinking water at a manageable cost.
'Treating contaminated drinking water, particularly for nitrate contamination, is expensive, complicated, and not very effective. Some communities are already dealing with this as a result of pollution from commercial interests and the Government is proposing to further open the door to commercial interests to dramatically increase their pollution of a fundamental public need,' says Kay.
High levels of nitrate in Waimate's drinking water supply in December last year led to a do-not-drink notice for many households. In 2022, a report estimated that treating Christchurch's water supply for potentially high nitrate levels in future could cost $610 million to construct and $24 million per year to operate.
The Government's consultation document on freshwater policy is open for submissions until 27 July. The consultation document proposes to remove national bottom lines for pollution as well as to remove or rewrite Te Mana o te Wai, the decision making framework in current national policy that prioritises the public interest in healthy water bodies.
'Rewriting Te Mana o te Wai or removing it from policy would have the same effect. It would take legal priority away from the public interest in healthy water and give more power to polluters by putting private commercial interests on par with people's drinking water.
'It's immoral but consistent with this Government's approach - look at the decisions on tobacco, for example. The Government is demonstrating it cares more about harmful commercial industries than it does about the health of its people.'