Local efforts recognised, as positive national water quality trend released

Following the release of National River Water Quality Trends today, Northland Regional Council acknowledges the effort of Northland landowners, businesses, iwi, council staff, and community groups to improve local rivers.

This release by Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) shows that for all river water quality parameters monitored over a 10-year period, more sites were improving than deteriorating.

Colin Dall, the council’s Group Manager – Regulatory Services said, "Our team regularly monitors the water quality of more than 40 river sites across our region. The results are freely available on the LAWA website and form part of the national trend.”

Northland Regional Council works with local landowners, businesses, iwi and the wider community, to reduce run-off and pollution into local waterways, manage river ecosystems, and maintain good water levels.

The majority of these interactions are positive and council Chairman Bill Shepherd said it’s clear Northland residents care about the quality of our rivers and streams.

Chairman Shepherd said, “Northland Regional Council carries out important work to improve the quality of our waterways and works closely with the community to achieve this.

“It’s important to remember all our individual solutions contribute to the bigger picture.”

“This includes everything from working with our catchment groups, to working with landowners to develop and implement farm water quality improvement plans, the provision of subsided poplar and willow trees for soil conservation planting and our Environment Fund, which helps landowners to do work to improve water quality, as well as a range of other projects”.

“The LAWA National River Water Quality Trends are promising and I hope that people feel empowered to get involved in freshwater management, whether that’s through informed consultations and submissions, community projects, or by reducing their own water footprint,” said Chairman Shepherd.

Water quality is impacted by multiple factors. The LAWA website connects New Zealanders with environmental data so they can make informed decisions and be meaningfully engaged in solutions.

LAWA is a collaboration between Northland Regional Council and New Zealand’s other 15 Regional and Unitary Councils, Cawthron Institute, and Ministry for the Environment. It’s supported by Massey University and the Tindall Foundation.

Colin Dall says the National River Water Quality Trends report is available from the LAWA website: www.lawa.org.nz