… and this is the moment we make a plan for it together.”
A message from our Chair, Gretchen Robertson:
“There’s a discussion our region needs to have.
Right now, how we ensure the future health of our freshwater sources – our lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands – is a project our scientists and planners are fully occupied on. It’s called the draft Land and Water Regional Plan. It’s a requirement in Aotearoa New Zealand law and replaces a plan that no longer does the job we need it to do.
It’s vital that you, and your community, are part of this conversation. No matter where you sit on the issues around our freshwater, this is your opportunity to be involved.
Whether you are a community built on food production, an industry processing goods and discharging wastewater, a recreational fly fisher, a grandparent teaching mokopuna to harvest kai, or you think your urban stream could be enhanced, water is a life force we all need. Each day, most of our drinking water flows from our rivers or groundwater, and our mighty rivers generate electricity. This important Plan will impact us all.
Striking the right balance between how we use water to sustain our needs and ensuring our waterways’ ongoing health, which we must prioritise, is the task in front of us right now.
The proposed rules and policies in our draft Plan for Otago will become a blueprint for managing our waterways and activities around them for years to come.
The regulations will be designed to protect waterways for future generations, and to prioritise Te Mana o te Wai, a national policy emphasising that the health of our waterways must come first, above all else.
Otago is not alone. This is a national directive that now applies to all waterways in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Government’s National Policy Statement on freshwater, 2020, gives effect to new protection measures that we must do.
Our Otago draft plan is one of the first in the country to go through these engagement processes towards public notification. The deadline for notification of our proposed Plan is June 30 next year.
We need your input prior to this final step. Join the kōrero, please tell us what you think. Are we on the right track with the rules and regulations we are planning to manage this environmental taoka/treasure?
It’s important that we hear from our whole community, so please take the time to read summaries of the proposed new rules and regulations on our website and use the online feedback form to tell us what you think. There will also be opportunities for face-to-face discussions all over the region during this engagement period.
Let’s chart a course for Otago. It’s your water, our future — and this is the moment we make a plan for it together.”
