Water Conservation: Fears Mackenzie Basin Will Derail Water Reforms
January 20th, 2010
Close observers of the water policy reform process are deeply concerned the Mackenzie Basin intensive farming proposal could derail the wider intentions of the reform package. All over NZ, and particularly in Canterbury, the pressure is on to raise the amount of water taken for irrigation and other uses, to improve the efficiency of its use and access for new users, and to bring sound economic principle to bear in an area that is inevitably politically fraught.
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The emergence of a high profile water use, which is already tarred by opponents’ use of the term “factory farming,” threatens to make the work of the Land and Water Forum – the Govt-appointed group of more than 60 water-using interest groups that has begun to get traction – infinitely more difficult if traditional adversaries who have finally got around the table in recent months are handed an issue which could so easily lead to polarisation. Not only this, but the Mackenzie water proposal raises serious issues about the potential for foreign competitors to damage NZ’s “pure” brand by talking up any perceived growth in so-called industrial farming techniques. No matter those competitors probably use exactly the same techniques at home – all’s fair in love and trade war.
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