It seems just about everyone has something to say about the supposed declining state of our rivers and who’s to blame for it. Hint: it isn’t anyone who lives in town.
I don’t have a problem with people expressing their opinion but I do have a problem with people who ignore facts, are agenda-driven, get emotional and dramatic about the natural state of things and refuse to acknowledge science.
I am, of course, referring to the hysteria around the swimmability of NZ’s waterways.
I’m based in Canterbury and you cannot open the paper without there being another headline about one or other of our rivers “vomiting slime” and/or dying.
I watched a couple of fisher people on the news the other night, people who should – and do – know better, declaring the rivers are “in their death throes”.
What utter nonsense.
Maybe they got caught up in the Oscars on the telly the night before and thought they’d give drama a go.
The rivers are not dying.
They’re suffering the effects of a prolonged dry period.
No decent winter rainfall for coming up three years here in Canterbury will dry your river up. It’s that simple.
The funny thing about people is that they have very short memories.
No one can remember the rivers ever being this bad.
Oh – except the scientists. They can remember all right, because they have data to prompt their recall. It’s a lot more reliable and far less selective than fisher people’s and townsfolk’s memories.
And that data will tell you the situation in the Selwyn River is similar to what it looked like in 2005-06 when the river recorded its lowest-ever flows and levels.
The scientists will also tell you the river is ephemeral – meaning it doesn’t flow above ground all of the time.
Ngai Tahu ancestors described the river as waikirikiri, meaning river of gravel or stones – it was dry way back then, before dairy cows, before irrigation.
This situation is happening all around NZ.
Whether they’re drying up or there’s a warning in place because of an algal bloom, kiwis are pointing the finger of blame for the state of our waterways at farmers – dairy farmers and irrigators in particular.
That is despite the fact many regions have irrigation restrictions in place on surface and ground water takes and other catchments don’t even have dairying as their main feature.
What I find interesting down here in Christchurch is that with all the recent debate about swimmable rivers, you never hear anyone carping on about wanting to go for a swim in the Avon or Heathcote “like they used to”.
It’s funny how townies focus on the rural rivers but refuse to acknowledge the state of those that run through their own back yards. And they didn’t get into that state because of cows or irrigators, did they?
I hope when the rain comes and the rivers are revived the people who spouted such nonsense on the news are re-interviewed.
Their story then would be less dramatic but a whole lot more truthful – it wasn’t dairy farmers and irrigators who killed the rivers, after all – just nature doing what nature sometimes does.
