Environment – Water is life

They say ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’ and, with unpolluted water, that seems to be the case. One generation ago, we could swim in streams and rivers that were flowing with clean, fresh water. Once, we could swim in all our beaches and bays. But it seems apparent that, due to sewer and stormwater discharges, many of those beaches and bays are now so polluted they’re no longer safe for swimming. Thousands of litres of untreated, contaminated wastewater have been billowing out into our harbours in every storm. Despite some efforts at sewer/wastewater separation, new toilet connections and the spread of impervious surfaces mean the problem is growing faster than efforts to solve it. With increasingly severe storm events, pipes are not big enough, treatment is inadequate and pollution continues. Arbitrary rates caps of 2.5% will never allow enough capital to fix up historic and current issues.

Elsewhere, water resources are run dry to support dairying needs – all that irrigation, all the water for cows, even the use of water for washing down dairy sheds show that we don’t value, or price, water the way we should. We still collectively take it for granted, and assume that it’s an infinite and free resource for the using. So, not only are mountain-fed streams and rivers drying out from over-extraction, but the water that is left is often contaminated, nutrient-overloaded, stagnant and only good for algae.

In many other places, deep underground water reserves have extraction rights sold, often to overseas investors, to support the trade in bottled water. With few returns for New Zealanders, our artesian water is sold off and exported, only to contaminate the world with more plastic bottles, and reducing our own supply.

While a lot of attention is directed at the social and economic costs, we should also spare a thought for the creatures that depend on clean water for survival. Our threatened eels and fish struggle in dying and dead rivers and streams. Wetlands, nature’s own water treatment devices, are our most threatened ecosystems. Wading and feeding habitats are diminished. During urbanisation, streams are channelled, piped and marginalised, reducing ecological functions, habitat and amenity. Artificial stormwater ponds are a poor substitute – they are fenced off, often impounded and the last refuge of many aquatic birds but, especially in summer, can also be sources of death as hotbeds of botulism and other toxins.

Water is life; we should prize it above all else. Instead, we continue to squander this precious treasure.