Farmers get in behind

Taranaki Regional Council chair David MacLeod says the reason freshwater health is improving long term is thanks to the voluntary work started by the Taranaki farmers. “It’s one of the reasons why Taranaki is the only region in New Zealand to have no at-risk catchments according to the government’s new criteria,” he says. “A large chunk of our community is behind the transformation of freshwater health — almost all of our 1700 dairy farmers, other rural landowners and iwi have been fencing and planting along rivers and streams on their property. Farmers are also moving to discharge dairy effluent to land, while industry and district councils have upgraded wastewater treatment plants. “It’s been bloody hard work, but we had to change from 20 years ago when there were pollution incidents every month in some waterways,” he says. Despite the improving freshwater results in Taranaki, testing over the summer showed high levels of E. coli bacteria at some river and coastal swimming sites, which the council attributed largely to bird droppings. Low river flow and warm weather also produced algal blooms, which feed on nutrients from run-off. “We still have work to do, and plans are underway to make riparian management work compulsory,” David says. “Soon all farmers will have to fence off and plant along waterways. The standards are lifting, and we want to continue meeting these.”

‘Our freshwater isn’t perfect. We still have work to do’