NZ River Awards 25 November 2017

New Zealand River Awards 2017

The Cawthron Foundation runs the NZ River Awards. These were established to draw attention to the state of New Zealand’s rivers, but more importantly, to recognise where communities, councils, farmers and industry were achieving significant improvement in water quality in one or more of their local rivers.

The Awards celebrate improvement in water quality. All rivers, whether they are in poor health or in pristine condition can potentially win an award for being the most improved river in a region or nationally. The most improved rivers are determined by a judging panel of three scientists using statistical analysis of monitoring data from the LAWA database. Each year the Awards use one of four key water quality indicators: E.coli, nitrogen, phosphorous and the macroinvertebrate index. 

Cawthron Foundation Chair Dr Morgan Williams explained that the Awards are an opportunity to celebrate those making a positive difference. They are a way that we can showcase those rivers that are leading the way.

Dr Williams said, “The Awards, which are now into their fifth year, showcase efforts that are representative of a growing movement to improve waterways across our country. Many people have been working hard to clean rivers up, and their hard work is paying off. We must celebrate our champions.”

The Awards feature stories from around New Zealand about water management and the environment, as well as the Reo mō te Awa (voice for the river) Award for an individual who has been a strong advocate for rivers.

“There are many thousands of inspiring examples of individuals, communities, organisations and businesses working to restore New Zealand’s waterways. Their stories are just that – tales of people, passion, and pride in their local environment,” said Dr Williams.

Canterbury’s Pahau River took out the Supreme Award for Most Improved River at the New Zealand River Awards 2017.

Pahau River is surrounded by dairy farms, yet E. coli in the water improved by an impressive 15.4 percent per annum over the past ten years.

Other awards announced include the River Story Award and Reo mo te Awa (River Voice) Award:

• The River Story Award went to University of Otago staff and students for their ExStream project experiments on freshwater. This pioneering system has been replicated in several countries and is currently being used to see how climate change plus pesticide use might impact on water quality.
• Marnie Prickett received the Reo mo te Awa (River Voice) Award for her strong advocacy of New Zealand’s rivers. She is part of a team driving for freshwater policy changes, so current and future generations can enjoy healthy, safe fresh waterways

Looking at all of the nominated projects the most heartening factor that comes through is that there has been very significant beneficial environmental outcomes in all cases from the projects, and the resulting beneficial outcomes have been driven by those with a direct stake in the outcomes.

“All the 2017 entries were magnificent examples of individuals, communities, organisations and businesses doing something positive for local waterways.” Three inspiring stories were:

• Hawkes Bay: Te Kaha Hawaikirangi is 30-years old and has spent years leading the charge to restore the Tutaekuri River in Hawkes Bay after being inspired by work done by other hapu on a nearby river. He knows restoration will take a long time, but is heartened by the big turnouts; a hundred plus people generally turn up to help on planting days and many are rangatahi, or young people.
• Canterbury: Children from 16 schools are working with local community and iwi to bring back the whitebait/īnaka to the Heathcote/ Ōpāwaho and Avon/Ōtākaro Rivers. Changes to river bank spawning habitat meant that īnaka have been in decline for some time and the 2011 earthquakes caused further damage. This work is proving successful, with straw bales nurturing over 1.5 million eggs in the Heathcote/ Ōpāwaho River during 2016.
• Otago: Ten years ago, university students took their research out of the classroom into the Kauru River. They wanted to see how freshwater ecosystems respond to multiple agricultural stresses, as well as climate change and rising water temperatures. This project is resulting in improved freshwater management and the technology they developed has been commercialised for use in Asia and Europe.

These projects were not driven by planners or council employees these projects and the resulting beneficial outcomes have been driven by those with a direct stake in the outcomes and a desire to improve the environment for the current and future generations.

The overall learning that should be taken from studying the award nominees is that all that is required to make a difference is willpower, passion and a desire to improve the environment.

Whilst it is always necessary to have support from regulatory bodies and adequate financial support to achieve successful outcomes, the most important ingredient in the equation is always, committed direct primary stakeholders with the passion, desire and willpower to make a difference.  

A study of environmental history in New Zealand will show that the most successful environmental improvement projects have almost always been driven by the direct primary stakeholders, supported by regulatory bodies and with adequate financial support, rather than being driven by the regulatory bodies. It always takes a partnership between the primary stakeholders and the regulatory bodies (often with independent financial sponsorship), but the most successful are nearly always driven from the bottom up by the direct primary stakeholders.