The freshwater of the future: What we need to achieve

Te wai māori o te anamata

Our Freshwater Plan will set out our long-term vision for our region’s freshwater – the vision will be supported by objectives and specific targets for improving freshwater (although this may depend on what the new government sets out in a revised National Policy Statement for Freshwater).

As a result of consultation on the draft Freshwater Plan Change, we know we have issues with freshwater. For example, feedback from tangata whenua and communities shows people value clean water for recreation, gathering mahinga kai and growing food. These values are affected by faecal contamination (as indicated by E. coli levels), so we need to reduce the number of river and lake sites that have poor or very poor E. coli levels and lift the number that are in excellent or good condition.

E. coli in our rivers and lakes

Chart showing baseline and future target E. coli levels in Northland rivers and lakes. Baseline measure shows high proportion of rivers and lakes with poor and very poor E. coli levels. Targets for 2035, 2040 and 2050 show increasing proportions of rivers and lakes with fair, good or excellent levels of E. coli.

Chart showing baseline and future target E. coli levels in Northland rivers and lakes.

We also need to improve the biodiversity of our waterways over time. The insects1 that live in our waterways are a measure of biodiversity health - our monitoring results indicate many of our rivers are impacted.

Insects in our rivers

Chart showing baseline and future target levels of insect life in Northland rivers. Baseline shows a high proportion of rivers with poor or fair levels of insect life. Targets for 2035, 2040, 2050, and 2060 show increasing proportions of rivers with fair, good, or excellent levels of insect life.

Chart showing baseline and future target levels of insect life in Northland rivers.

These are just examples – there are a range of other issues where improvement is needed such as sediment loads and nutrients concentrations in sensitive waterbodies such as dune lakes.

You can find out more about the draft targets in Appendices H.11 and H.12 of the draft Freshwater Plan Change (PDF 12.08 MB) - please note: freshwater attributes and targets may well change as the government revises the NPS-FM.

1 Macroinvertabrates (wadeable rivers – MCI)