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A new approach to managing the Cardrona
Freshwater Management Units (FMUs) have been set for Otago, some of which are further divided into rohe (sub areas). Each FMU or rohe community needs to set agreed shared values, objectives and limits for their waterways. This is a requirement of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 so that waterway management is decided locally, rather than with a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
The Cardrona catchment forms part of the Dunstan Rohe and a lot of work has been done with this community on values and objectives as part of the process to set minimum flows for the Cardrona River.
Since 2010, Council has hosted five community workshops in the Cardrona catchment to discuss the policy framework for managing surface water and groundwater in the Cardrona catchment and share scientific information about the Cardrona River and the Wanaka Basin Cardrona Gravel Aquifer.
At the last public workshop in May 2019 community members and other stakeholders were invited to provide ORC with feedback on:
ORC is now collecting further information that will assist with getting a better understanding of the potential impacts of various management options on water users in the Cardrona Valley and on the Wanaka Flats.
ORC went back to the Cardrona catchment community in 2019 to find out if the values previously identified were still relevant, and whether any community members had new values to add. Read the results of this consultation here.