Nick Smith - Nelson MP, Minister National Government

New Regulations to Improve Water Management

Last month the Government approved regulations requiring all significant water takes to be metered as part of a wider programme to improve fresh water management. I made the announcement as Minister for the Environment at the annual Jenny Shipley Lecture in Christchurch on 30 April.

At that lecture I made the point that we can’t even begin to manage water properly in New Zealand when we have so little information on how much is extracted and when it is estimated that only 31% of water taken nationally is metered. These regulations will ensure 92% by 2012, 96% by 2014 and 98% by 2016.

The Resource Management Act (Water Metering) regulations will require all water takes of more than 20 litres a second to be metered within two years (2012), water takes of more than 10 litres a second to be metered within four years (2014) and water takes of more than 5 litres a second to be metered within six years (2016).

These regulations are the result of thorough consultation on a discussion document with irrigators, farmers, industry, councils, iwi, and environmental organisations. The Government has included pragmatic exemptions to ensure the cost is only being incurred where there are real benefits.

The new regulations has received support from groups including Irrigation New Zealand, Federated Farmers and the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern). Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis called the regulations “pragmatic” and backed the Government’s view that you can’t manage water if you don’t measure it.

Mr Curtis was quite correct when he said a national regulation was by far the most efficient way of getting water measured rather than leaving the decision and timing to each individual regional council. Regional councils have only been able to require metering for new consents or renewals meaning it would take more than 25 years to get accurate figures on water use. It is also more efficient to have a consistent national standard for water meter accuracy and reporting systems.

These regulations do not cover small takes for domestic use – 5 litres per second is the amount of water used by about 250 households.

Water is a public resource and it is quite reasonable for Government to require those who use it to pay for measuring and reporting how much they take. Consent holders will be able to use information on how much water they are using to identify costly inefficiencies in their systems. Economic analysis shows that water use is worth more than $5 billion per year to the economy and only a small improvement in efficiency makes this investment in improved information well worth while.

These metering regulations are the first step in the Government’s plans to improve New Zealand’s fresh water management. Wider issues covering improved regulation on water quality, better systems for water allocation, and simpler processes for advancing sustainable storage schemes will be undertaken after the Land and Water Forum has reported to the Government in July.