Oranga Wai | Our Freshwater future

On 28 May 2020, then Minister for the Environment under the previous Central Government, David Parker, announced new national direction for halting the degradation of our rivers, lakes and streams. The Essential Freshwater announcement signalled where changes to the proposed policy package had been made in response to consultation in September 2019.

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Essential Freshwater Package

Oranga Wai | Our Freshwater Future was the way Horizons chose to represent our programme of work relating to the Essential Freshwater package. As part of this mahi, we analysed the new package's requirements against Horizons’ Regional Policy Statement and Regional Plan, collectively referred to as the One Plan, to determine the relationship between the new National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F), the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020, and the One Plan.

We also undertook multiple rounds of community engagement to help inform a revised One Plan. While the One Plan covered many of the same areas as the new requirements, changes were needed to give effect to the new national direction. Engagement topics included the following:

freshwater values
long-term visions for freshwater
water allocation
freshwater management objectives
water quality targets

Proposals to revise the Regional Policy Statement and Regional Plan were due to be finalised by 2024 and operative by 2026.

Oranga Wai | Our Freshwater Future Programme Paused

However, following the current Government’s announcement to suspend all plan changes until the new Resource Management Act 1991 replacement legislation and review of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 come into force, Horizons Regional Council has paused progress on the Oranga Wai | Our Freshwater Future programme.

We are grateful to the many people in our community, including tangata whenua, community groups, farmers, sector organisations and other key stakeholders who have invested time into this process to date. We thank you for your contributions and patience, and look forward to talking with you again in the future once the new legislation and national direction are in place. 

Other Freshwater-Related Work

We still want to further understand and embrace our communities' shared knowledge and experiences of freshwater, including mātauranga Māori, to enable us to look after freshwater better. This knowledge will come from continuing to work in partnership with tangata whenua, as well as from community and stakeholder engagement.

That said, Horizons already has a strong understanding of the region’s freshwater resources. This is due, in part, to our comprehensive monitoring, research and science programmes.

We also have well established non-regulatory programmes and have been working with landowners, iwi, and community groups on fencing, riparian planting, effluent management, and biodiversity initiatives for decades. These include our freshwater programme and the Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI).

SLUI also includes voluntary Whole Farm Plans. A big part of the Whole Farm Plans success has been Horizons' ability to subsidise landowners, enabling on-farm environmental work to be done sooner. This includes identifying key issues such as using fertiliser effectively, which can help bring down nutrient leaching on farms.

The Jobs for Nature funding we received from Central Government has helped us accelerate fencing and planting around waterways and fish passage remediation programmes we already had underway. The $18 million package also facilitates the construction of a wetland complex near Punahau - Lake Horowhenua.