Water problems not all farming’s fault – Smith

That's the view of Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith who, along with Primary Industry Minister Nathan Guy, recently released a consultation document on fresh water entitled 'Next Steps'. This sets out a series of initiatives to improve water quality in lakes, rivers and waterways.

One of the main proposals centres on having dairy cows and pigs excluded from waterways by next July and beef and deer being phased in by 2030. A fine of $100 per animal up to a maximum of $2000 is also proposed.

Smith told Rural News that improving water quality is not just an issue for rural NZ, but for urban NZ as well.

"We need to be honest with city folk and tell them that their water ways are the most polluted. Having said that, we need farmers to appreciate that our biggest water quality problem by scale is in those areas where there is intensive farming," he adds.

"The Government wants to see that everybody does their share of the heavy lifting. There is no question that dairy farmers are under substantial financial pressure and the Government does need to take that into account.

"With that in mind, our view is that the direction around water quality needs to be constant, but the pace needs to be adjusted to take account of the level of financial pressure the dairy industry is under at the moment."

Smith says, in actual fact, the requirement to fence cows out of water ways is not a major one for the dairy industry. He says about 98% of dairy farmers already comply and there are just a few stragglers that need to be dealt with.