March 23, 2016
Community help needed to raise river scorecard
The co-chair of the Waikato River Authority says a massive effort by iwi, government, industry and the community will be needed to restore the river to health.
The authority has given the Waikato and Waipa catchment a C plus rating, but water quality only rated C minus.
Tukuroirangi Morgan from Waikato Tainui says while the authority estimated it could take up to 100 years to fully restore the rivers, it should be possible to show considerable progress in the next couple of decades.
He says there's a positive commitment by the community at large to clean the river up.
"The community at large have brought int the fact we have to do this together, and the C+ rating and the report card, that's a starting point, there's a long way to go. We've got to challenge ourselves and our community members to help us, because we can't do this by ourselves," Mr Morgan says.
He says the budget given to the authority as part of the Waikato River Settlement isn't enough in itself to do the job, so people needed to form partnerships to bring additional resources to the job.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com