Looking after our lakes

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the current government worked with local communities to restore our polluted lakes rather than waging war on them? By Tom Kay 

One of my favourite family photos was taken when I was almost three years old. I’m standing on the shores of Lake Taupō in front of the kayak my dad used to teach outdoor education, holding a paddle twice my size. 

It captured the most joyous and special moments of my childhood, swimming in the clear and cold waters of Taupō Moana and marked the start of a life of adventure on lakes and rivers around Aotearoa New Zealand. 

I didn’t know it then, but, when the photo was taken in 1997, water quality in Lake Taupō had begun to degrade. Activities on surrounding land, especially dairy farming, were leaching nutrients to the lake at a rate that threatened its health. 

Tom Kay is Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate and is leading Forest & Bird’s fight for freshwater campaign.

Thankfully, long-term damage was averted by Waikato Regional Council, which moved to introduce new rules to limit nitrogen loads into the lake – and land users had to comply with them. 

Central, regional, and local government also invested more than $80m to reduce nitrate leaching and encourage alternative less damaging land uses, such as forestry, and sheep and beef farming, in the catchment. These activities were still productive and economically beneficial but leached less nitrate. 

Lake Taupō was preserved in a near-pristine state and became a world-leading example of freshwater public policy success. The lake was saved by decision-makers, iwi, farmers, and landowners who chose to prioritise freshwater health for people and the planet. 

Sadly, the huge effort it took to save Lake Taupō is an exception in Aotearoa. Since I first picked up my paddle 27 years ago, communities throughout the country have experienced a severe decline in the health of their local lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and estuaries.

A boom in intensive dairy farming saw the number of milking cows in New Zealand almost double to 6.3m from 1990 to 2019. Nitrogen fertiliser use increased by 629% from 62,000 to 452,000 tonnes over a similar period. 

Cow urine is full of nitrogen, and this pollutant leaches into waterways. Nitrate levels in groundwater, including in some drinking water sources, are dangerously high in parts of the country and continue to increase. Phosphorus and pathogens from farming continue to pollute our water too. 

The area of artificially irrigated land has also doubled since the 90s to provide pasture for the intensively farmed dairy cows. This significantly reduced the flow in some rivers, further degrading the health of water and contributing to the development of algal blooms. 

Today, most lakes and rivers are in big trouble. Some of our largest and best-known lakes are the sickest, such as Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere, in Canterbury, Lake Horowhenua, near Levin, and Lake Waikare, in the Waikato. 

The water quality of all three is categorised as “exceedingly poor”, according to the Lakes 380 map, which assesses the water quality of Aotearoa’s precious lakes. 

This category means they have exceptionally high levels of pollution, have algal blooms in summer, and are not usually suitable for swimming. You can check the quality of your local lake at lakes380.upshift.co.nz. 

Our pollution problems are exacerbated by rain flushing contaminants from urban and rural land into waterways, raising the risk of swimmers becoming ill. We saw this happen in the River Seine during the Paris Olympics in July. Several triathletes got sick from pathogens associated with E. coli. 

Here in New Zealand, many of our favourite childhood swimming spots exceed water quality limits for E. coli and toxic algae. Numerous swimming spots carry warning signs every summer. Families must check the “Can I Swim Here?” section of the Land, Air, Water Aotearoa website (lawa.org.nz) to see whether it’s safe to swim in their local lake, river, estuary, or beach.

Tom Kay, aged two, testing out his paddling ability, Lake Taupō, 1997. Image supplied.

Sick rivers are bad for wildlife too. Nutrient pollution drives algal growth, which sucks oxygen out of the water and suffocates our fish. Today, 76% of native fish, including whitebait species and tuna longfin eel, are threatened with, or at risk of, extinction. 

When it comes to freshwater, 100% Pure New Zealand is a myth. 

Over the past decade, following campaigns by Forest & Bird, Choose Clean Water, Greenpeace, and many others, public concern about the state of our waterways has grown and politicians have started to take notice. 

The previous Labour government introduced an Essential Freshwater policy package in 2020. This included an updated National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management – a promising move forward after 10 years of incremental change had not reversed the downward trend in freshwater health. 

The new approach embedded a fundamental concept called Te Mana o te Wai. Essentially this recognised that without healthy freshwater we cannot have healthy people or communities.

Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate, Tom Kay, swimming with his nephew Riley, Lake Taupō, 2023. Image supplied

It included a “hierarchy of obligations”, prioritising the health of freshwater bodies and ecosystems first, then the health needs of people, and, finally, the ability of people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural wellbeing. 

Saving Lake Taupō in the 2000s is a good example of Te Mana o te Wai in action. We need to prioritise the health of freshwater in decision-making. Yet the current coalition government is determined to go backwards. 

Lakes, rivers, and streams are the next target in its War on Nature. 

As I write this, legislation is going through Parliament that will allow the hierarchy of obligations set out in Te Mana o te Wai to be bypassed by decision-makers. 

Soon, the government plans to “review and replace” the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020. Ministers claim to want the policy to “better reflect the interests of all water users” and allow “more flexibility” in how environmental limits are met. 

What they really mean is they want to go back in time and allow private commercial interests to profit from freshwater while polluting it with impunity.

Lake Taupō is home to at least 31 species of aquatic birds, including rare weweia dabchick. Image John Nelson

Right now, New Zealand is in a unique position. We have worldleading environmental policies that recognise the fundamental importance of freshwater to our collective health. As human beings, we cannot survive without healthy lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries, and wetlands. 

Two decades of consultation with communities, tangata whenua, and businesses, as well as evidence-based debate with industry, went into the Essential Freshwater policy package in 2020. It exists as a compromise between groups in response to collective public concern. 

While it is not perfect, it has the potential to restore freshwater health across Aotearoa. 

I have another favourite family photo. It was taken last summer, swimming in Lake Taupō with my two-year-old nephew Riley. Sharing the clear and cold waters with him nearly three decades after my parents introduced them to me brings me an indescribable sense of joy and purpose. It is even more special knowing the lake was saved by the generation before me for exactly this reason. 

If we hold on to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 and the Te Mana o te Wai hierarchy of obligations, we can replicate the success of Lake Taupō throughout the country. It will not happen overnight, nor will it make every river or lake pristine. But over time it will make them, and us, healthy. 

Our families, and our children and our grandchildren, will have access to clean drinking water and swimmable rivers. And our communities will thrive. 

We cannot let the government take that future away from us.

WHAT IS FOREST & BIRD DOING?

In July, Forest & Bird lodged a submission against the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, explaining how it weakens freshwater protections. 

Our freshwater advocate Tom Kay, and our legal counsel Sally Gepp, also made an oral submission to the Primary Production committee. The select committee's report was released on 30 September and their recommendations have been described as a full-blown assault on freshwater and indigenous biodiversity. 

Earlier in the year, Forest & Bird also drafted a submission on the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill, which included changes undermining the Te Mana o te Wai hierarchy of obligations. 

We will continue our fight for freshwater when the coalition government starts its review and public consultation on the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020, including the Te Mana o te Wai hierarchy of obligations, later this year or early 2025.