National overthrew local democracy in Canterbury to appoint their own directors of ECAN (Environment Canterbury). And now this – Millions of litres of water illegally taken: Is ECan doing enough?
Millions of litres of Canterbury’s water may have been taken illegally, as the extent of non-compliance among high-scale water users is revealed.
Data shows that in one year, consented users were recorded taking hundreds of millions of litres of water above their entitlements. They received few fines and there were no prosecutions. The vast majority were not punished at all. The exact volume of water taken cannot be known, because 500 large-scale users are still not measuring their takes, despite national requirements to do so.
While the vast majority of irrigators followed the rules, official information from ECan’s records, released to advocacy group Forest & Bird, showed the extent of non-compliance by those who didn’t. The data, collected between 2013 and 2014, revealed some users recorded taking hundreds of millions of litres of water more than they were entitled to, with numerous others either reporting inaccurate data or not recording data at all. Water was being taken during low-flow restrictions, in areas suffering under drought-like conditions with rivers running dry. Others had broken rules several seasons in a row, ignoring threats of enforcement action.
“These are serious environmental crimes that are punishable by fines and prison sentences under the Resource Management Act, yet ECan seems unwilling to do much more than issue abatement notices, which it then fails to enforce,” said Forest & Bird senior legal counsel Peter Anderson.
“Elsewhere in New Zealand abatement notices are taken very seriously. However, in Canterbury irrigators seem to be able to be ignore them with impunity.”
In one example, a Mackenzie district farm had been caught taking too much water three years in a row.
Is ECAN just another typical Nat party fuckup, or are they deliberately turning a blind eye?
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