Government told to stop the granting of consents for foreign water bottling companies / all current consents must be reviewed – Maori Council
“Our water is one of the most precious resources we have and we must move to protect it. Selling millions upon millions of liters offshore is nothing more than pillage.” Matthew Tukaki, Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council
The New Zealand Maori Council will tell the Government to put a stop to foreign water bottling companies taking New Zealand water and shipping it offshore – this includes an overhaul that allows Regional and District Councils to grant consents for its extraction. The Council’s Executive Director, Matthew Tukaki, has said that “I am sure all Maori and, for that matter, many New Zealanders would agree that this sort of profiteering at the expenses of our resources must end.”
“Let’s not forget when the Ashburton Council decided to sell lot 9 which went with it, wait for it, a consent to bottle 1.4 billion liters of artesian water each year. Then there is Coca-Cola bleeding out water supply dry to make millions off the Pump brand, the Latvian company in the Bay of Plenty, the Japanese company in the South Island and the list goes on. Foreign companies are bleeding our water supplies dry and it must end and must end now.” Tukaki said
“Let’s face it this is not just a debacle borne bare by local government lets not forget those old protectors of land, water and the environment put the for sale sign firmly up for foreign buyers when the Greens Ministers Eugenie Sage signed off Chinese water bottling giant to purchase land in order to expand their existing Otakiri Springs water bottling plant near Whakatane. Sage and the Greens should hang their heads in shame – and what about these political parties who came to the last election saying that would take the issues seriously and even those who said moratorium? Where are the Greens having taken the baubles of office? NO where to be seen.” Tukaki said
“We have a series of failures here – the first is that there should be no more water bottling consents granted to overseas companies so we can put a stop to the taking of a valuable resource, the second is the Overseas Investment Office that opened the door to Sage and her Green Party mates needs to be overhauled and reformed, the third is there must be an overhaul of the Local Body laws that grant unfettered powers to regional and local Government who only see the cha ching dollar signs ringing in their eyes and fourth it’s about time as sorted out once and for all the ownership rights, shared or otherwise, when it comes to water in this country.” Tukaki said
“The New Zealand Maori Council will be taking these points on the road and lobbying Government to implement them as policies ahead of the next election as well as the other parties – but to be honest I really question how the Greens can sell Maori and our people down the river on this one. Whatever the result we must put a stop to the sale of our water to offshore companies and we must ensure both the stabilization of our water supply and our artesian basins.” Tukaki said
“The reality is that water is a precious taonga, a resource that all New Zealanders see as fundamentally important – we must do everything we can to protect our assets, sustain them and best use them that sees all communities benefit both environmentally and into the future – selling tens of millions of liters offshore is an absolute nonsense.” Tukaki said
The New Zealand Maori Council will now look at a standalone Maori Water Commission and it will be on the agenda for the next national hui of the Council in early May.
I agree with you New Zealand Maori Council, “no more litres of water” must be our chart to stop foriegn interests strealing any more of our water. I stand with Maori as a great grandson of Euopean fifth generational New Zealanders.’ United we stand’.
I agree with you New Zealand Maori Council, “no more litres of water” must be our chart to stop foriegn interests strealing any more of our water. I stand with Maori as a great grandson of Euopean fifth generational New Zealanders.’ United we stand’.
Foreigners are exploiting the loop holes in our council bylaws so this needs to change immediately. Instead of foreigners taking our precious water and some are even selling it back to us and making money I would like to see us do this. By this I mean NZers bottling our own water. So this means the water companies must be NZ owned and operated they must employ NZers and there needs to be regulation to ensure when the water cannot be extracted for example contamination, severe shortages and practises that are generally in the best interest of our country and our people. We cant keep saying no one owns the water as the council seem to have control so that is partly ownership this needs to be sorted and there will be ways for us to get around businesses that need water for example paint companies , soft drink companies, farmers and food growers. No one seems to want to sort this but it needs to be sorted now before it is too late.
I posted this elsewhere but it is more specifically relevant here, so here it is again (hopefully with all the links intact this time).
“Exporting” our water concerns me more than anything else. It’s on a par with selling our land itself to foreign owners, foreign corporations, foreign nations. Why we are allowing this, a kind of vampire system that is sucking the water of life out of us, I have no idea. It is the single worst thing that is happening to Aotearoa right now, imo.
Our planet is running out of groundwater. The world’s aquifers are running dry.
“More than a third of the world’s groundwater basins are distressed, according to a new study.” That from 2015, so we have already known this for at least five years, yet we are failing to act!
From this link: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/third-worlds-groundwater-basins-distress-n376511
Researchers from NASA, the University of California, Irvine, and other institutions analyzed satellite data and found that eight out of 37 of Earth’s largest aquifers were “overstressed” or “extremely or highly stressed,” meaning they had no natural replenishment or very little, respectively. – Study from the Water Resources Research journal.
From The Guardian March 2017: Aquifers, the world’s reserve water tank, are running dry… We live on a parched planet. Farmers till arid pastureland and policymakers fret over empty reservoirs, dry rivers and thirsty cities. And that only scratches the surface – literally – of the world’s water problem. Subterranean aquifers, the world’s reserve water tank, are also running dry https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/mar/27/aquifers-worlds-reserve-water-tank-asia
——
Ctd:
But the problem extends beyond water depletion. Over-pumping groundwater leads to soil subsidence, causing some Asian cities to sink. By 2030, 80% of North Jakarta could be below sea level, while parts of Beijing are sinking by several centimetres a year. Depleted aquifers near coastlines are prone to contamination from saltwater, rendering land barren. Some are contaminated by arsenic, which can occur naturally deep underground.
And, from The Guardian June 2018:
According to James Famiglietti, co-author of the Nasa Grace study, some of the areas most vulnerable are “already past sustainability tipping points” as their major aquifers are being rapidly depleted
From Physics World October 2019: Within three decades, almost 80% of the lands that depend on groundwater will start to reach their natural irrigation limits as the wells run dry. In a world of increasing extremes of drought and rainfall, driven by rising global temperatures and potentially catastrophic climate change, the water will start to run out.
It is happening already: in 20% of those water catchments in which farmers and cities rely on pumped groundwater, the flow of streams and rivers has fallen and the surface flow has dwindled, changed direction or stopped altogether. (my emphasis) physicsworld.com/a/water-stress-rises-as-more-wells-run-dry/
Aotearoa is in a state of drought now. Here is the NIWA Drought Monitor for reference
Farmers are already culling their stock in Northland, RNZ reports:
farmers-culling-stock-as-drought-in-northern-regions-takes-hold
And from Stuff,
A “huge hot spot” was now covering Auckland and Northland, [NIWA Meterologist] Augutis said, and there was nowhere in the North Island where soil moisture levels were normal or above normal.
“The drought has developed very quickly throughout January,” Augutis said.
Northland has been dealing with dry conditions since the end of 2019, with many farmers in the area stating it was costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars and families had been driven to extreme measures to save precious water. severe-meteorological-drought-hits
From Weather Watch, 22/1/2020: Big Dry over Northern NZ Increasing
In August 2019 Aucklanders were asked to reduce water usage in mid-winter due to how dry it had been. Now as we approach month two of 2020 the top of NZ and the east of both islands are drying out.
And, from 2nd February: Feb Climate Outlook as Drought Zones Grow
WeatherWatch.co.nz says dry weather is stuck in place over the North Island and will likely remain that way for much of the month. The forecaster, using IBM data, projects a drier than average trend will continue across the North Island for at least half to two thirds of the month, with potential it could linger even longer
From the ol’ Herald: Why Drought has come to NZ
A drought affecting parched pockets of the country is expected to widen across the northern North Island over the next week, and there is no decent rain in sight. Science reporter Jamie Morton looks at some of the big questions.
FYI and for the Labour Party and news media’s benefit : NZ also also a South Island, the north eastern part of which is also heading in to drought.
NZ also (has) a South Island
Yeah, I sort of heard there’s some place down there somewhere 🙂
(I lived in Greymouth for a year and in ChCh for four yrs, and travelled around a bit.)
Yes, the drought is spreading, at the same time as disastrous flooding is creating emergencies further south on the West Coast.
Cheers.
If you could just let the Labour Party know that’d be sweet.
They knew where the west coast was once, now they just want to poison and tramp it.
Maybe next time they get in office they can spend more than $2 on roading in the south for all those tourists we can’t get enough of in their fossil fuel powered vehicles.
Bugger the tourists.
(Am I allowed to say that? Too bad, said anyways.)