$100m for Kaipara clean up welcomed
Scheme estimated to create 300 jobs
A$100 million fund to clean up the Kaipara Harbour has been welcomed by organisations from around the Southern Hemisphere’s largest harbour.
On Sunday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that 2000 jobs will be created over six years from pouring $162m into cleaning up waterways in the regions.
The largest part of the fund — $100m — will be to clean up the Kaipara Harbour. The money, and up to 300 jobs it will create, have been welcomed by the Kaipara Uri and councils.
It has been welcomed as a critical turning point by those championing the proposed scheme — the Uri (descendants) affiliated to Kaipara Moana, and the Auckland, Kaipara and Whanga¯rei District and Northland Regional councils.
A business case for government funding was made last October by Kaipara Uri through the Kaipara Moana Negotiations Reference Group (with representatives from
Te Uri o Hau, Te Roroa,
Nga¯ Maunga Whakah¯ı o Kaipara, Nga¯ti Wha¯tua O¯ra¯kei, and Te Ru¯nanga o Nga¯ti Wha¯tua), and the local authorities with combined jurisdiction over the harbour and its catchment.
Tame Te Rangi, from the Kaipara Moana Negotiations Reference Group, said the ambitious scheme aims to improve the health of the harbour by a partnership between mana whenua and councils, working with local communities including landowners and the farming sector, to halve sediment loss from the land.
Programme partners say addressing sediment will offer a raft of benefits — improved freshwater quality, greater biodiversity, resilience from climate change, and carbon sequestration through tree-planting and wetland management.
NRC chairwoman Penny Smart said around 300 much-needed new jobs could be generated as the nation focuses on its collective recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“About 200 new jobs will be needed for direct work on farms — fencing, water reticulation of streams and wetlands, preparing and planting land, weeding, and hill country stabilisation. Another 100 jobs will be required in the rural sector for nurseries, fencing manufacture, and farm advisory services.”
Kaipara District Council mayor Jason Smith said for the many communities and marae that sit next to the moana the programme cannot start soon enough.
Willie Wright, from the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group, said a healthy and productive moana is sought by everyone. “Many have been working hard already to improve the environment as best they can, and with this newlyannounced and very welcome government funding we can now do what we’ve collectively been wanting to do for years.”
Whanga¯rei District Councillor Phil Halse said the funding removes some of the basic economic barriers that have prevented landowners, regional bodies, and marae and hapu¯ from a large scale collective effort to remediate the health of the moana and its many streams and rivers.
Te Rangi said that for environmental remediation to be truly effective for the moana, it needs to be targeted and done at scale.
“While we tend to over-estimate what can be achieved in a year, we under-estimate what can be achieved in 10 years, which is why Government’s contribution for the first six years of the 10-year remediation programme is so important.”
Auckland mayor Phil Goff also welcomed the funding.
■ At high tide Kaipara Harbour covers 947sq km and has more than 3000km of shoreline.