The Impact of Agriculture

A growing threat to wild rivers is agricultural intensification. Many wild rivers have been affected in the past by irrigation takes, for example from the Rakaia and the Buller, but there is a growing clamour for large irrigation water storage on wild rivers.

The Dairy Demand

Generally, New Zealand agriculture has adapted to landuse that suits the terrain and climate of the location - for example low intensity grazing in the dry high country compared to moderate intensity dairying in the lush Waikato. Where irrigation has been necessary for agricultures or horticulture, it has been drawn from aquifers and off nearby rivers. However, recent trends towards high-intensity irrigation-dependent farming (usually dairying) has put increasing pressure on these water sources, and increased demand for large-scale water storage. Even drylands like the McKenzie Country and North Canterbury are being converted to dairying, requiring massive irrigation and also leading to immense runoff and pollution of lowland waterways.

Threats

Current dam proposals on Canterbury rivers in particularly, such as the Hurunui, are primarily to create water reservoirs for irrigation. They go well beyond a reasonable level of water storage to guard against drought and climate change - this could be achieved through on-farm water storage and small-scale storage. Instead, the water storage proposals are designed to facilitate the large-scale conversion to high-impact irrigation-dependent intensive dairy farming. Often the soils cannot cope with the pollution that results, leading to water degradation of downstream aquifers and waterbodies. It is simply not sensible to allow New Zealand's finite wild rivers to be sacrificed for the sake of highly unsustainable forms of landuse.