Our stories

Tēnei te mihi nui ki ngā kaikōrero, mō rātou whakaaro, moemoea, wawata. Our huge thanks to the contributors for their thoughts, dreams, aspirations.

Something interesting has been happening in the Rotorua/Te Arawa lakes over the past decade or so. Instead of separating into factious groups, government, NGOs, iwi, members of the farming community, scientists and the wider community have united in kōrero and actions to support restoration efforts on the lakes. Perhaps this is a model for Aotearoa to follow?

New Zealand has a freshwater crisis. There is little doubt about this now as report after report has piled up over the last year. In an interview on his own report on the state of the country’s fresh water, the Prime Minister’s chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman said: “the reality is we cannot keep going as we have been.”

Aotearoa has an abundance of streams that have enabled many of us to develop a personal connection with natural bodies of water over our lifetimes. However, while our streams are a wonderful feature of our landscape, they can also make us very sick.

One of my favourite rivers in the Canterbury region is the Ōpihi River. Its mauri, however, has been eroded and like many of our rivers, it is now a shadow of its former self. Currently, one of the many problems in this catchment is toxic algal blooms formed by a type of cyanobacteria called Phormidium.

The misuse of scientific data to portray a particular perspective is not unusual in advertising, but the presentation of water quality data by the government in New Zealand is a glaring example of misrepresentation to alter public perception.

The Stewart Stream in Opito Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula is a good example of a once-pristine waterway that is now regularly prone to high turbidity and sediment levels caused by erosional run-off.

Across Aotearoa NZ, many rivers are no longer safe for fishing and swimming. Find out how a research and action project called Te Awaroa aims to catalyze and inspire a national movement of New Zealanders taking care of our waterways.