February 27, 2020
Lake water on Te Arawa agenda
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Te Arawa have their lake beds back. Now they’re waiting for the water.
That’s the word from Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Trust chair Sir Toby Curtis after the bed of the 14th lake, Okaro, was formally vested in the trust.
He says like the other lakes it will be managed in partnership between the iwi and the council, and that’s also the way it will be if and when the water is returned.
“We don’t exclude people. We include them. And we want to make sure while we will be doing our best to get the full ownership of the waters it is not going to exclude them. They will be as much a part of the water’s future as we are today with regards to the lakes itself,” Sir Toby says.
Lake Okaro just off the Rotorua-Taupo road was left out of the original 2006 settlement because it was owned and managed by Rotorua Lakes Council as a recreation reserve.
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