November 15, 2012
Water regime unstable without Māori input
The chair of Te Wai Māori Trust, Ken Mair, is welcoming support from the Land and Water Forum for the resolution of Māori water rights.
In its third and final report the forum, which represent a range of major users and interested parties including industry, dairy farmers, irrigators, conservation and recreational groups and iwi, calls for a better system of rights to take and use water within set limits.
Mr Mair says the forum's recommendation for decisions to be made on water at a catchment level underpinned by national policies is sound, and it had made it clear that Māori need to be involved in any such regime.
"We would certainly, from a Wai Māori perspective, strongly encourage the Crown to sit down and work through these issues. Otherwise you are going to have an unstable and not a very durable future with regards to water management, unless we deal with these fundamental issues around the rights and interests of Māori, of iwi with water," he says.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd