New Freshwater Rules
In 2020 the government introduced ‘Essential Freshwater’ – a package of policies and rules to protect and improve our rivers, streams, lakes, groundwater and wetlands. It includes:
- New rules for landowners
- Directing council to prepare a plan for maintaining or improving the state of freshwater in the region – the Freshwater Plan.
At the heart of the Essential Freshwater vision is the concept of Te Mana o te Wai - that recognises the health and well-being of waterbodies and freshwater ecosystems must now take priority over all other concerns.
The content you’ll find here is designed to give you as much insight into what the new rules are, and how they might affect things you currently do.
Improving our freshwater is going to be a long game and while we can’t expect to achieve all the things we need to overnight; we think it will require significant change at scale across Northland.
We all share the same desire to see future generations be able to enjoy clean water. The challenge in front of us is how do we get there?
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