Our water: Where on earth are we going?

The flurry of accusations and judgements directed at Environment Canterbury by Government Ministers and ex-Ministers and the region's mayors is long on politics and short on thoughtful analysis on how the present situation arose.

The backdrop to Ecan's recent strenuous and increasingly effective measures to improve water management in the region, is years of governance and management that shunned or under-invested in integrated land and water planning.

It is common knowledge that the council did not vigorously pursue formal (statutory) regional planning, an optional activity for regional councils under the Resource Management Act.

It was nine years after the introduction of the Act that Ecan finally released an issues and options paper on managing Canterbury's water resources, kicking off the engagement with citizens on the planning process. This delay, a great mistake, has plagued the region since.

Whether the delay was to help rural constituents obtain 35 year water consents uninhibited by planning constraints as some assert, or the result of the diversion of staff time to the enormous task of collecting and interpreting more and more detail on ground water and surface water resources for consent hearings and decisions, is unclear.

When the Natural Resources Regional Plan finally emerged as a proposed plan in 2004, it was as much about clawing back water from allocated users as it was about allocating it. Planning 'after the event' is not very effective!