Clean water not as easy as it sounds

The prime minister says people have ‘‘high expectations’’ for clean waterways, but need to understand the complexity of the problem.

Bill English made the comments during a visit to meet constituents in Manawatu.

English said there was ‘‘quite high community expectations’’ for standards of waterways, but there were difficult long-term issues to be dealt with.

Opposition politicians, meanwhile, are split on whether more incentives or punishments are needed to turn around the problem.

Speaking to the Manawatu Standard on Friday, English said the quality took a long time to deteriorate and a long time to improve.

‘‘Fixing the problems requires really good science, often spending an investment and good management, whether it is stormwater in town, or runoff on farms.’’

English said people also needed to be aware of the ‘‘size and complexity’’ of the task.

It is a topical issue for Manawatu, with Horizons Regional Council recently found to not be enforcing water quality regulations properly.

But English played down the recent Environment Court case. ‘‘I’m not surprised that regional councils run into some roadblocks. There are others round the country and most of them have found this pretty challenging.’’

English said he still had faith in councils to do their jobs.

The topic also came up at a Federated Farmers AGM in Palmerston North, where opposition politicians spoke on the issue.

Labour primary industries spokesman Damien O’connor said they needed to ‘‘get on and do the job’’.

He said environment minister Nick Smith’s attempts to justify wadeable water-quality standards had ‘‘set the farming sector up as a target’’. ‘‘Everyone I speak to wants swimmable rivers. We should all agree on that.’’

But, he said, farmers needed assistance and shouldn’t be ‘‘clobbered’’. ‘‘The vast majority of people live in the cities, they don’t understand. There has been a huge amount done across agriculture.’’

O’connor said urban and rural areas needed to share the same targets.

Green environment spokeswoman Eugenie Sage said there needed to be a mix of carrot and stick.

She said the resource management act had become nearly 1000 pages and was ‘‘far too complex’’. ‘‘It is not delivering improved water quality.’’

She said assistance with fencing streams and riparian planting was needed.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said farmers were not to blame for the Havelock North gastro bug. ‘‘The nearest farm was 40 kilometres away.’’

He said New Zealand could have clean water and allow farms to operate.