Science needed in water investigation

Despite interest groups such as Greenpeace pointing the finger at farming, no-one should jump to conclusions, he says.

Di would not be drawn into speculation on the cause, but says authorities need to get to the bottom of it.

“Unless they identify the source they cannot prevent it happening again.”

Di was recently named to head a new New Zealand-China Water Research Centre at Lincoln, with partners AgResearch, Landcare Research, Plant & Food Research, Lincoln Agritech Ltd and the University of Otago.

The centre will coordinate long-term work by New Zealand and Chinese scientists researching issues common to both countries, such as ground and surface water contamination by agrichemicals, and inefficient irrigation practices.

“One aim of the centre is basically to try to involve as many people as possible to engage in water quality and water quantity research,” Di told Rural News.

“The emphasis will be trying to mitigate nutrient losses to ground water or to surface water. The key to water quality is how you stop pollution in the first place. We know from Havelock North, once the water is polluted it is very hard to clean it.”

The water research centre is one of three NZ-China centres for which Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce announced funding in July; the other two are a food protection network based at Massey University and a non-communicable diseases centre at the University of Otago.

Di has a history of working with Chinese institutions, and will head a team working on groundwater hydrology, solute and water transport, irrigation management, nutrient losses to waterways, waste management, microbial ecology, water foot-printing and bioinformatics (using DNA profiling to identify soil microbe populations and what they do).

The Lincoln centre will get $1.25 million over three years to pay for work not bricks and mortar, Di says. Some of the money may be spent on infrastructure such as lysimeters and laboratories, but its main purpose is seed funding “to apply for other funding”.

The centre will coordinate the two countries’ work and tap into international funding. Di says China has a lot of environmental issues and its central and local governments are spending a lot on research which may benefit both countries.

“People are important. There will be exchange visits; we’ll be going to China to visit the leading teams over there, look at their research programmes, their infrastructure, their investment and so on to see how we can work with them, where we can participate in their research and how we can apply for joint funding.”

The centre’s priorities will be nutrient losses, nitrogen leaching and contamination of ground and surface water, to meet new stricter rules imposed by ECan and other regional councils.

Despite Lincoln University’s financial woes, Di believes the centre’s long-term future will be assured because of its independent funding.