Govt to control water reform

The Government plans to take charge of water management until it is satisfied it is in the right hands.

"Water is so strategically important that central Government has to ... provide more direction," Environment Minister Nick Smith told an environmental summit in Auckland last night.

Water management reforms would be led by the Land and Water Forum, involving major water users in agriculture, industry and power generation, as well as environmental and recreational groups.

The reforms have been supported by the Greens.

Co-leader Russel Norman said he had supported the process because something had to be done about water issues.

Environment Canterbury chief executive Bryan Jenkins said he was encouraged by greater leadership from central Government.

"We don't have a problem with Government leadership some things are best done at national, regional and catchment levels."

Deteriorating water quality and poor incentives for water allocation and storage were the catalysts for the reforms.

Smith told The Press it was time to investigate whether regional councils were the right agencies "at the right level" to make crucial water management decisions.

"Central Government has today said that we aren't going to leave all this to regional government," he said.

"It's likely that this process will result in reforms to the (Resource Management) Act and provide new tools for bodies like Environment Canterbury to use in better managing water."

At the end of the reform process over the next year, the Government would seek input from the public and iwi before making any policy decisions, Smith said.

"The Government doesn't underestimate the challenges that are there," he said.

In his speech to the Environment Defence Society summit, Smith said he wanted New Zealand to get the "best value" from its water resources.

That "best value" needed to be determined by considering economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions, and by weighing up individual, local and national interests.

"We need to move away from our current first-in, first-served system to a system that is focused on getting the most value, in a broad sense, from the use of our water.

"The problem is that our system of management has not kept up with the extra pressure on our water system."

- © Fairfax NZ News