Why water makes NZ the true lucky country

Water is crucial to growth in our economy, particularly in the agriculture, food and forestry sectors, which generate at least 70% of New Zealand’s merchandise export earnings and about 12% of gross domestic product. It is also, of course, crucial to our $10 billion tourism sector, and as part of our renewable energy production.

Economically, we know that managing water more efficiently through irrigation has the potential to increase agricultural exports by as much as $4 billion per year by 2026. The value of just allocating existing water-takes more efficiently in water-scarce catchments has been estimated at $12.7 million for each one per cent improvement. There is also lots of scope for further irrigation area, with a number of major schemes in development.

But there is no doubt we have not had a sufficiently rigorous system for managing our freshwater, both as to quantity and quality. That simply cannot continue if we want better environmental and economic outcomes.

On an international scale, New Zealand’s water quality is still among the best internationally, but we do not shy away from the fact that the quality has been declining in some of our lakes and rivers over many decades, and we must address this.

To improve this, the National-led Government has already spent $101 million, since taking office in 2008, on cleaning up pollution from our waterways, and $450 million has been committed to a two-decade clean-up of Lake Taupo, Rotorua lakes and the Waikato River.

In the white-hot emotion of the water debate, it seems that a different report is released every week making claims about the state of our waterways that often give only half the picture and lack context. One recent report used data going back to 2004 to claim our waterways today are not in a good enough state.

A recreational water quality indicator report released by the Ministry for the Environment focussed on 210 fresh water beaches and 248 coastal beaches over five consecutive summers that were known to have water quality issues (out of the tens of thousands of swimming spots across the country).

Most of our monitored sites were graded fair-to-excellent for swimming. But even in that context, waterways graded as poor in the report indicated a 1% chance of a swimmer there becoming unwell. And the report made it clear the causes of concern in the monitored sites include not just agriculture, but also wildlife, waterfowl and council sewerage discharge.

Looking at the bigger picture, it seems the focus of debate on environmental issues, such as water management, often centre on the competing pressures which divide us, while ignoring the values and outcomes most of us would share.

The legacy of water management has increasingly been contentious, divisive and litigious, where there must be a winner and a loser. Sector groups, both industry and environmental, have often tended to take extreme positions in the hope that it will move the balance their way and perhaps out of concern that if they start in a  moderate position and if their opponents do not then they will miss out.

This cannot continue as a way forward for New Zealand.  We must recognise both the economic potential of water use and the rare and valuable asset our abundant clean waterways are, and find solutions that protect both.

To deal with these challenges, we need to make difficult balancing decisions between environment and economic potential. Without doubt, these issues are politically challenging but equally the cost of not dealing with them over many years has been significant.

We have an opportunity to implement a significant water reform strategy to maximise opportunities and address problems with our system for managing freshwater.

New Zealand needs this reform to provide for economic growth and improve environmental outcomes.

Improving water management systems will require solutions that start now and build over the long-term.

The collaborative approach taken by the Land and Water Forum (LAWF) is a critical cornerstone of the Government’s moves to reform the way we manage freshwater.

LAWF’s success has provided us with a unique opportunity to advance freshwater reform that reflects all those essential ingredients of economic development, environmental, social and cultural safeguards.

We will soon be able to advance reforms that have wide buy-in, that consider the long-term impacts of the way we manage our freshwater resource, and that provide greater certainty for businesses which need reliable access to water.

• Amy Adams, MP for Selwyn (National), is Minister for the Environment.