Call for community water approach, not regulation

Farmers in Manawatu-Rangitikei clearly want a partnership on water to encompass the rural sector, urban communities and local councils, including the Horizons Regional Council, says Federated Farmers.

Federated Farmers Manawatu-Rangitikei provincial president Gordon McKellar said issues such as the allocation and quality of water and how the beds of rivers were managed were of extreme relevance for farming.

"There's a feeling the One Plan has been dairy-specific, but the reality is that all farmers are in this together.

"Horizons' approach is to regulate first and ask questions later, which gets in the way of constructive dialogue and solutions.

"Federated Farmers would like to see Horizons treat regulation as being the last resort and not the first for nitrogen management."

Mr McKellar said Horizons should instead extend the positive non-regulatory approach for nutrients as they do for phosphate loss from farms.

"Getting tangible results is what ought to count and what the One Plan ought to be all about."

He said Manawatu was one example of what Federated Farmers was telling the hearings commissioners – that it's unreasonable to expect farmers could magic away decades of impact. "But given realistic timeframes and decent policies, we can make a start."

Mr McKellar said that although farms could and would do their bit, the region's 220,000 human population's impact on water quality seemed to be a truth that dare not speak its name, at least for 50 years.

"Horizons is giving industry and urban centres some 50 years to rectify major point sources of pollution into the region's waterways."

"To ram a need for partnership home, we have been presenting case studies highlighting how community involvement and partnership can yield vast improvements in many aspects of water quality, not just nutrient discharges."

Horizons and the region's farmers were at a crossroads and water would determine the direction of that future for better or for worse, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News