2. Water Management Framework in New Zealand

The Treaty of Waitangi is the treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs. It resulted in British sovereignty over New Zealand and is generally considered the founding document of the nation. There is a preamble and three articles. The first article addresses Crown sovereignty. The second article addresses Māori rights in land and other resources. The third article guarantees Māori the same rights as other British subjects (Waitangi Tribunal 2016).

RMA s5 (1) The purpose of this Act is to promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources. (2) In this Act, sustainable management means managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being and for their health and safety while—(a) sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations; and (b) safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems; and (c) avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment.

Kaitiakitanga means the exercise of guardianship by the tangata whenua of an area in accordance with tikanga Māori (Māori custom) in relation to natural and physical resources; and includes the ethic of stewardship.

Ngāi Tahu is the Māori tribe whose rohe (tribal territory) includes the Canterbury Region.

As Gunningham notes: “the RMA does not protect the environment by invoking the precautionary principle and the court’s narrow interpretation of cumulative ‘environmental effects’ has further limited the reach of the Act” (Gunningham 2008).

As stated in the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Central Plains v Ngāi Tahu Properties Limited (19 March 2008): “This case concerns competing resource consent applications to take water from the limited free volume available from the Waimakariri River. The RMA says nothing specific about the priority of competing claims to take from a natural resource.”

Refer Sect. 3.​1 for the water situation in Canterbury.

While noting that the Forum has pioneered the use of collaborative processes at the national level, it also acknowledges their use “in a number of regions of New Zealand in various forms for some years now, not least through the pioneering work of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy” (p29).

The Irrigation Acceleration Fund is designed to support the development of irrigation infrastructure proposals to the ‘investment-ready’ prospectus stage. In Canterbury (as at 28 July 2014), there had been contributions to the Hurunui Water Project ($2.385 m) for geotechnical investigations and preliminary design work, Central Plains Water ($5.300 m) for design completion of the head race and piped distribution system, and prefeasibility contributions for the Ashley River ($195,000) and Opuha and Rangitata South integration ($277,550), Lower Waitaki upgrade study ($133,865), Haka Valley design study ($194,930), a demand study ($641,329) and feasibility and design study ($7.044 m) for Hunter Downs, and, an upgrade from open race to piped distribution for Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation ($742,281) (Ministry for Primary Industries 2014). More recently there have been grants to design Stage 2 of the Central Plains Scheme ($6.64 m), to pilot aquifer recharge in the Hinds Scheme ($312,000), for the Sheffield Water Scheme ($900,000), and a further $520,000 to refine the scheme layout for the Hurunui Water Project.

Changes to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management came into effect on 7 September 2017.

At the time this book was going to press a fourth review of the RMA has been announced by the Environmental Defence Society.