Some Facts about water
Answer: Of all major rivers in the developed world that flow through farmland, the OECD found Clutha rated 1st, the Waitaki 2nd and the Waikato 4th for cleanliness.
Answer: Our three longest rivers were found to have very low levels of nitrates, and relatively low levels of total phosphorus.
Answer: 90% of our rivers are getting cleaner. There are river care and land care groups on all main and many small rivers across New Zealand. They’re spending millions of dollars to improve water quality. They include farmers, Fonterra, Dairy NZ, NZ Beef and Lamb, Landcare NZ, Federated Farmers, Iwi, fertilizer companies, universities, and regional councils.
Answer: Only 17 of our 1000 rivers are still rated very poor for cleanliness. But the Commissioner for the Environment reports that each one is getting cleaner.
Answer: We use only 1.2% of our available fresh water. That’s nearly the lowest in the OECD.
Answer: Farmers have so far fenced off 45,000 km of rivers and streams (note: the 20,000 km being quoted by National is Fonterra farmers only), as well as doing a great deal of planting alongside waterways.
Answer: Farmers have so far fenced off 90% of New Zealand rivers that run through farmland.
Answer: As farm income has risen, farmers have been able to afford to help clean up our rivers, and are doing more fencing and planting all the time.
Answer: Our worst-affected stretches of river are downstream from urban, not rural, areas.
Answer: Cap farming at its current level.
Answer: The loss of precious new export income that would allow us to afford better hospitals, better schools – and a cleaner environment.
There are river care and land care groups on all main and many small rivers across New Zealand. They’re spending millions of dollars to improve water quality.
These groups include farmers, Fonterra, Dairy NZ, NZ Beef and Lamb, Landcare NZ, Federated Farmers, iwi, fertilizer companies, universities, and regional councils.
The fact is, thousands of New Zealand farmers are heavily committed financially and ethically to making our rivers cleaner.
THE DOWNSIDE OF A HUGE UPSIDE
So why do we have this problem with our rivers? It goes back to the early days of our farming and industry. The upside of those pioneering efforts was that farmers gave New Zealanders the highest standard of living in the world. The downside was that, with no practical alternatives, they had to use the rivers as a means of disposal. Everyone accepted that. There was little or no dissent.
Then in the 1960s, attitudes changed. And work began on cleaning up.
FARMERS MADE US A RICH COUNTRY, NOT THE STATE.
We remind you who built the farming industry on which New Zealanders still depend for their high standard of living. It wasn’t the state. That’s why we say innovative, commonsense farmers have a better record of fixing environmental problems related to farming than heavy-handed bureaucrats.
MORE FACTS ABOUT HOW WE’RE IMPROVING OUR WATER QUALITY
There are three sources of pollution in waterways: pathogens (faeces), sediment (erosion) and nutrients (mainly phosphates and nitrogen).
Every year the pathogens and sediment problems have got better. And we’re now seeing a reduction in phosphates thanks to the efforts of farmers, the government, regional councils and other groups.
Something you should know when you hear the word nitrogen. Nitrogen occurs naturally in waterways – if it didn’t we’d have a much bigger problem. Life in the water would die.
Rivers can handle quite heavy loads of nitrogen. There’s no real problem until blooms appear. That’s a rare occurrence in New Zealand’s 1000 rivers.
NIWA’s Dr Davies-Colley had this to say about our improving water quality:
“A relatively few urban- and mine-affected rivers in New Zealand probably have the worst water quality because of mobilization of toxic contaminants such as heavy metals as well as severe habitat modification.”