Water and land management – good progress in Orari-Opihi-Pareora

Addressing Timaru District Council yesterday, Environment Canterbury Commissioner Tom Lambie outlined the good progress being made towards delivery of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS) via regional and local implementation programmes.

The draft regional implementation programme (RIP) is now out for public review.

The draft Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP), a key delivery mechanism for the CWMS, will soon be going out for public consultation as well.
Mr Lambie thanked the local community and tangata whenua for their efforts to date and emphasised the need for collaborative action, particularly on the challenging issues around water quality.

The zone implementation programme (ZIP) for Orari – Opihi – Pareora (OOP) was finalised on 2 April and will be presented to the Council shortly.

Final ZIPs will be taken into account in preparing future RIPs. Sub-regional chapters of the LWRP will include additional policies and rules to help with delivery of zone priorities and collaboratively determined catchment water quality requirements.

Tom Lambie said the OOP ZIP was addressing a number of important local issues, including water quality, biodiversity, and securing reliable supplies of drinking water as well as water for industry and irrigation.

“Water quality and biodiversity both require strong action at the local catchment level as well as on-farm initiatives,” he said. “New district plans should support the CWMS in protecting biodiversity. We need to secure reliable drinking water supplies as well as water for industry, and to increase the irrigated area.

“The zone doesn’t currently have access to enough water to deliver on all the CWMS targets, so we need to optimise current use and secure new supplies. Further, the new regional infrastructure needs to support all CWMS targets.”

Mr Lambie said the OOP sub-regional chapter of the LWRP would cover a series of priorities from each zone committee, a catchment flow and allocation regime for Orari, groundwater allocation limits and flow-sensitive catchments.

“I’m confident we are well placed to meet the major challenges of the future using the collaborative approach to water and land management that’s already proven highly effective in this area and throughout Canterbury,” Tom Lambie concluded.

For more information on the various plans visit Regional Strategies and Plans.