We do not consent!
Clean up our water NOW!
Thursday 13 May,
12 noon – 1pm
ECan, 200 Tuam St
After ten years of covering the Canterbury plains with intensive dairy conversions and massive irrigation schemes …
- Groundwater and streams are saturated in excess nitrates from cow pee and fertilizer
- Birds and fish numbers & species have dropped rapidly, as the insects they depend on cannot survive in even low concentrations of nitrates in water
- Nitrates in drinking water in many rural areas, have reached levels harmful to human health – ‘blue babies’ and colorectal cancer. Many rural households are testing their well water. Increasing nitrates levels are occurring in aquifers supplying urban areas.
- The high water takes for irrigation is damaging the aquifer and braided river structures and ecosystems.
Resource consent for these huge irrigation schemes was pushed through in 2011 despite strong public opposition and without any public input, after ECan was sacked and replaced by a commissioner.
Now these consents are being renewed for another 10 years, again with no opportunity for public input!!
This, despite ECan now having an elected council. Despite the new tighter national freshwater standards that Labour announced last year. Despite the planned sweeping changes to the RMA that Labour has also announced.
WE’RE IN A CLIMATE & ECOSYSTEM EMERGENCY!
Both Labour and ECan acknowledge this. They must act on that reality!
ECan and the Labour government must –
- change the law NOW to reverse these consents,
- Stop this damaging model of land and water use NOW
- Support farmers and rural communities to transition to healthier land use.
If you care …
about the water you drink, the rivers your kids might swim in, the fisheries and birdlife, the aquifers and rivers that have sustained people and nature in Canterbury for so long …
use your voice and join the public rally this Thursday outside ECan.
Useful resources
- NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers President & retired vet Peter Trolove – video presentation on the state of Canterbury braided river ecosystem
- Rural GP Robin Barraclough – video presentation to ECan on nitrates & human health
- Forest & Bird Canty Nicky Snoyinck – video presentation to ECan on MHV, nitrates, loss of democracy etc
- Aotearoa Water Action & lawyer Peter Richardson – video presentation to ECan on water management needing to align with national water strategies
- Farm advisor & vet, Alison Dewes – video presentation on how farmers can be supported to transition to lower stock number AND higher profitability.
- Water activist Angus Robson alerted Canterbury public to the fact that these consents are being rolled. And here.
- Public meeting at Aurora Centre, with Aotearoa Water Action, Forest & Bird, NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers and XRŌ – Stuff coverage, livestream video (on AWA Facebook page), and video of Siana speaking for XRŌ.
- Newsroom backgrounder on the consent complexities of the irrigation consent
- Newsroom backgrounder (April 2020) on state of NZ’s freshwater
In love and rage
Torfrida, Rachel and Dave for XR Ōtautahi Christchurch
Anyone who’d like to donate to our XR Ōtautahi Christchurch group can do so at Kiwibank: XROtautahiChristchurch, ac. number 38-9002-0331592-07
