December 30, 2021
Piripi keen to see councils ousted from water role
A far north iwi leader says councils have wasted water resources and wasted opportunities to work with Māori.
Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa chair Haami Piripi is backing the Government’s Three Waters reform, which will take control of freshwater, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure away from local councils and give it to four large regional entities which will include Māori at the governance level.
He says both Māori and government will need to work to make co-governance work.
“What we have been dealing with until now has been a post-colonial structure in terms of councols and the way they have managed warer resources and marginalised us in the process so we do have to be assertive but we are not the easy pushovers we used to be.
“We have educated and strong people who can get into these positions and we have influential strong Māori ministers who are in the right place to make this happen, so if there was ever a chance to crack this nut, this is it,” Mr Piripi says.
He says the insertion into the policy sphere of Te Mana o Te Wai, the concept that protecting the health and well-being of freshwater protects the health and well-being of people and environments, shows how the use of tikanga Māori can benefit national policy settings.