As you were relaxing at the beach over the summer break, idly scrolling through your phone in search of new ways to barbeque a fillet, you may have seen a constant stream of stories filtering through news and social media channels on the ever-widening array of water woes that we face in New Zealand.
We certainly saw them: a daily surge of story after story on droughts and deluges, restrictions and insufficient resources, and leaks and landscapes damaged. It seemed that few regions of the country escaped without a major challenge, as shown by just a few of the many, many stories that we saw:
Dry spells and ‘potential drought issues’ across South Canterbury and the Mackenzie basin
A major leak in Waipukurau leads to level 4 restrictions
Torrential downpours in Westland underscore urgent need for flood protection
Wellington has been going through its own water emergency, with restrictions in place and students even urged to half-flush toilets and take shorter showers. This ongoing issue has prompted ministerial involvement, including this Radio NZ interview with minister Simeon Brown and an editorial view from the NZ Herald that Wellington’s water problem has a clear solution: water metering.
Water woes are clearly set to be a major agenda item for New Zealand this year – it is not going away any time soon…
