Water research may be too late - critic

Millions of dollars are being pumped into water management research and education in Canterbury over the next six years.

However, water groups fear research results will come too late, with water-use decisions due in the next few years.

Environment Minister Nick Smith today will open a joint Canterbury and Lincoln university centre specialising in freshwater management that has been granted $1 million by the Tertiary Education Commission's innovation fund.

This week, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology awarded $42m, over six years, for water-related research, including Canterbury-based projects.

The funding is timely, considering the water storage and irrigation plans for the region.

However, water groups point to the poor state of the region's waterways and worry that the research results will come too late to influence significant decisions.

The National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (Niwa) is leading the multimillion-dollar research, which includes scientists from Nelson's Cawthron Institute and the University of Canterbury. Niwa strategy general manager Dr Bryce Cooper said the foundation's grant continued government investment in a critical research area.

Projects will explore the effects of contaminants on ecosystems, aquatic restoration and rehabilitation, and determining environmental flow regimes for rivers.

Freshwater ecologist Dr Roger Young, of the Cawthron Institute, the country's largest independent research centre, said the third project would study how much flow could be sustainably taken from rivers for irrigation or hydro-electricity projects.

"It's hugely contentious in Canterbury at the moment – and throughout the country," he said.

A 20-year study of 77 of the country's rivers had shown the "very concerning" state of the country's waterways, Young said.

"To bring them back to swimmable quality is out of the question for a lot of systems," he said.

Water Rights Trust chairman Murray Rodgers was worried the research results would come too late, considering upcoming decisions on water management.

"There's quite a lot of pressure to crank the pace along," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News