Councils and rivers of dreams

Somewhere, deep in the heartland of this country, a machine is being cranked once more. It will churn out press releases, infographics and fun facts for politicians stating that farmers have planted trees or erected fencing to protect close to 100,000 kilometres of the country’s waterways.

It will remind us of the many farmers doing a great job to enhance wetlands and other vulnerable ecosystems around the country.

Of course, much of this is true, but there is no better metaphor for agriculture’s inability to grasp the seriousness in which the rest of the country approaches its essential liquid asset than its reliance on riparian planting to explain its actions.

Agriculture, it appears, is unable to see the wood for the trees.

But it’s worth asking if the Government is also struggling for focus.

Its action plan for healthy waterways appears to be a call for some haste in an area where so much talking has turned the rivers into treacle.

Like the information delivered by DairyNZ, Fonterra, Federated Farmers and others, the Government’s offering is a fast-moving current teeming with numbers, agency anagrams and bold objectives.

There will be ‘‘material improvement’’ in water quality ‘‘within five years’’, we are told.

‘‘We want to bring our freshwater to a healthy state within a generation.’’ This despite general acceptance that nitrogen can remain in the soil and leach into waterways for decades. It is only slowed by riparian planting; not stopped altogether.

The ‘‘health and wellbeing of the water’’ will be first in decision-making, with commercial considerations some way down the list, the Government says.

On top of this there will be new, more robust measures to quantify what quality is, and enforcement practices to ensure that bucolic state is reached.

These are all noble words and goals. And all very necessary if we are to get where we want to be.

But after the discussion document must follow delivery. And that’s where the treacle can become turgid.

Our regional councils play a significant role in ensuring that farmers, industries and urban centres look after the water they all depend on.

In a previous life they were catchment commissions with the sole purpose of guardianship over the environment. In 1989 they became regional councils and morphed from environmental protectors to asset managers, balancing the needs of nature and industry.

Some even became public transport companies. Because few people seem to know, or possibly even care, what a regional council does, farmers are often voted into leadership roles, especially in regions with a strong agricultural focus.

That has further undermined the councils’ environmental credentials, and potentially places the fox in charge of the henhouse.

Maybe that is part of the reason why, in an area where you would expect the regional councils to take the lead, the Government’s action plan is prodding them to ensure they have new freshwater plans in place no later than 2025.

Because there appears no mention of how the action plan will be implemented, it seems fair to assume regional councils will play a key role in its eventual delivery. Unfortunately, regional councils have done a poor job of enforcing the rules they already have, and there is no sign of them being given greater resources to implement new ones.

That leads to confidence that, rather than rivers of clean, drinkable, swimmable water, we will continue to see rivers of press releases, infographics and fun facts.

After the discussion document must follow delivery.