April 06, 2016
Giveway gives away water hypocrisy
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei would like to see more iwi challenging councils and the crown on water allocation.
Ngati Kahungunu iwi has just won an Environment Court case over a Hawkes Bay Regional Council plan change that would have lowered water standards in the region.
There’s also alarm in South Canterbury about the Ashburton District Council’s plan to sell a water bottling company land with a consent to take up to 40 billion litres of artesian water.
Ms Turei says in many cases communities struggle to have a say, but iwi have the ability to step up and fight water giveaways.
"If you buy a water consent or land that has a water consent on it you're buying the cost of the land and you're buying the consent but your'e not buying the water and so you can access the water. That water itself the product that you're selling off in those little bottles is you've gotten essentially for free,"she says.
Metiria Turei says clean water has significant value in the international market, and New Zealand isn’t doing enough to protect that resource.
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