October 18, 2023
Water hui gets Brockovich matauranga
The real-life Erin Brockovich will this morning speak remotely to the Water New Zealand conference in Te Whanganui-a-Tara about her experience fighting pollution and corporate greed.
Water NZ chief executive Gillian Blythe says her mantra of stick-to-it-iveness will resonate with people trying to deal with years of underinvestment in water infrastructure.
There are also a number of speakers sharing matauranga Māori about water.
“Water New Zealand’s vision is ka ora te wai, ka ora te whenua, ka ora te tangata – if the water is healthy, the land is health and the people are healthy. You have that conversation. I’ve had it both domestically and internationally recently and I don’t think there is anyone on the planet who would ultimately disagree with that as a grounding,” Ms Blythe says.
She says water infrastructure is about long term decisions which need to be taken out of the three year political cycle.
The country’s crumbling water infrastructure and long-term lack of investment has been obvious in recent weeks with the Auckland sinkhole and subsequent sewage spill in the Waitematā harbour along with the Queenstowns cryptosporidiosis outbreak.