Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

Our water resources are a very important natural asset which must be managed carefully to ensure they are protected against degradation, yet kept available to support life and our economic endeavours.

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has a large work programme underway to meet the requirements established by the Government in its National Policy Statement for Freshwater. This requires the regional council to ensure the overall quality of fresh water in our region is maintained or improved – and we are doing so by dividing the region into water management areas, or catchments, and setting freshwater objectives, limits and targets for water bodies within these areas including lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater.

To do this, a huge amount of scientific information about the water resource and its quality, quantity and use needs to be collated and understood. So far this process is underway in three – Rotorua Lakes, Rangitaiki, and Kaituna/Pongakawa/Waitahanui – of our nine water management areas.

This is a process being undertaken in collaboration with communities within the water management areas, and it has added complexity because of the co-governance entities established by the Government in treaty settlement processes.

The time and resource this work requires is significant, and is complicated by the fact Government has signalled it's making further changes to the Resource Management Act and the NPS-FW.

The complexity of all this is mind-bending, and fraught with conflicting interests. However, ultimately, we all want the same thing – to ensure we have plentiful and healthy water resources for future generations.