Friday, 21 July 2017 07:55

Real progress can be made at catchment level – Rolleston

Written by  William Rolleston
William Rolleston. William Rolleston.

New Zealand, as we all know, is blessed with abundant water and we have it to ourselves.  

We have abundant water, but not always in the right place at the right time. For example, North Canterbury had been in drought for three years, affecting not only farmers who had to turn off their irrigators, but also rivers like Selwyn – the subject of intense media scrutiny over the early part of this year.  

In the final Selwyn River hurrah, before the rains came and ruined all the fun, The Press, in Christchurch, ran a front page article on the Irwell River where fishing had been destroyed.  

Buried deep in the article were two small observations: nearby Heart Creek had been destitute for some ten years before, but farmers had got together and rehabilitated it; and the complaining fisherman travelled to South Canterbury’s Opihi River to fish, yet no mention was made of its being supplemented by the Opuha Dam built by farmers.

This raises a question: how is the primary sector achieving on-the-ground behaviour change to meet the challenge to improve fresh water?

Farmers have seen the problem of over-allocation of water in the Selwyn River and are working hard to address this. They recognise the effect nutrients are having on Te Whaihora and are working to fix that too.

In my own patch of coastal South Canterbury, farmers reacted strongly and negatively to the potential imposition of rules restricting water use and allocating nutrients.  

However once they had became engaged and understood the issues, they moved quickly from reaction to proaction.

They worked together to achieve the best solution which in my view needed to pass two critical tests: first, any regime would not affect the business value of the high emitters; second, any regime would not affect the land value of the low emitters.  

We did pretty well in those regards, but only because the farmers worked from the catchment up to find solutions.

No one is saying farmers and farming have no effect on the environment.  

What I am saying is that up and down the country farmers get it and are working hard to address the problem.

Dairy farmers have spent at least $1 billion fencing rivers, riparian planting and improving effluent management.  

Their dryland cousins have contributed most to setting up QEII covenants protecting private land for conservation at a real and opportunity cost of $1.2b to $1.4b; our levy bodies spend millions of dollars on research, much of it now focused on water issues.  

Catchment by catchment, farmers and other locals are working together to come up with solutions that are sensible, practical and affordable.

They are on a journey. Despite this effort there are still catchments which need work and we need to concentrate our efforts there.

But I contend that behaviour change is already under way: 80% of our catchments have water either improving or stable in quality.  

Even Horizons was achieving water quality progress as they implemented their plan but at the point they were dragged off to court.

On-the-ground behaviour change happens when the players are engaged constructively, not forced to keep a narrow set of unworkable rules.  

On-the-ground behaviour happens when the problem is viewed from the ground up (catchment by catchment) not from the top down. And on-the-ground behaviour change happens when it is led by good science, not activist rhetoric.

• This is an edited version of a speech given to Local Government NZ in June by former Federated Farmers national president William Rolleston.

More like this

Rain misses Taranaki region

The 'atmospheric river' of rain that swept down the country last week almost completely avoided one of the worst drought-affected regions in the country – coastal Taranaki.

Should've waited

OPINION: The proposed RMA reforms took a while to drop but were well signaled after the election.

Featured

Farmers urged not to be complacent about TB

New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.

Editorial: Making wool great again

OPINION: Otago farmer and NZ First MP Mark Patterson is humble about the role that he’s played in mandating government agencies to use wool wherever possible in new and refurbished buildings.

National

Machinery & Products

Farmer-led group buys Novag

While the name and technology remain unchanged and new machines will continue to carry the Novag name, all the assets,…

Buhler name to go

Shareholders at a special meeting have approved a proposed deal that will see Buhler Industries, the publicly traded Versatile and…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Make it 1000%!

OPINION: The appendage swinging contest between the US and China continues, with China hitting back with a new rate of…

Own goal

OPINION: The irony of President Trump’s tariff obsession is that the worst damage may be done to his own people.

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter