The headline barked "no lower environmental standards by compulsion", as demanded by Phil Murray, the chairman of the Central Otago Environmental Society (COES), in his most recent opinion piece (Otago Daily Times February 26).
He offers no explanation as to why he thinks it is perfectly acceptable to raise environmental standards by compulsion but not to return to lower standards by compulsion.
Both happened by central government decree and required by those who have no experience in such matters and who will pay no price for being wrong.
Recent hot, dry conditions place real pressures on all users. Even a 75% reduction in the allowable take of water for winter feed crops is not enough to satisfy the environmental definition of a healthy flow. Just why taking water for a productive use during drought conditions is seen as a negative and perhaps even punishable by the local authority is not explained.
The river systems in Otago continue to replenish themselves every winter and spring despite the best efforts of COES to have us all believe that the ecological health and wellbeing of Otago is under direct threat.
It is noticeable that COES does not, nor is it likely to ever, quantify the impact its demands will have on the regional economy. Industries such as the stone and pip fruit, viticulture, along with the need for winter feed crops for livestock, contribute massively to the economic wellbeing of this region and its people.
If we are so dependent on our rivers here in Otago for our future wellbeing (as COES puts it) , it may be helpful to set aside the Manuherikia River for the moment and examine the impact of rivers and their contribution to our social economy.
There are eight hydro dams on the Waikato River, three on the Waitaki River and two on the Clutha River, which have all drowned important geothermal and cultural sites, altered fisheries, and changed river ecology, hydrology, sedimentology, morphology, water clarity, temperature regimes and recreational uses.
On the positive side, the productivity that emanates from the use of river systems for power generation for a myriad of uses is immeasurable. That is the trade-off. All of these rivers have industrial and residential uses as well as recreational benefits.
The negative impact on the naturalness of these rivers is indisputable. That said, a whopping 57% of our power generation comes from renewable hydro generation. These dams exist because of compulsion by central government, yet COES remains silent on the future alternatives to meet our electricity needs.
Has COES ever looked at the contribution productivity (in all its forms) impacts on our ability to face the future needs — not wants — of society?
A glance at the requirement of schools to meet the needs of our children, the hospitals that need replacing , the roads and bridges washed away that need vast resources to replace them, all need wealth created from our natural capital to meet just a few of the obvious needs.
Without the ability to implement the ideals of an intelligent society, to think and progress through production from our natural capital, we might well produce only enough to supply half the population. Which half then misses out becomes very obvious — the poor.
If society chooses to say we do not value your worth and your production, then society can foreclose — but they don’t. Indeed, society demands we use our productive capacity for real, tangible and bankable value so we can all survive and prosper.
Production from water therefore is a means to meet our wider requirement beyond mere survival on the land. Productivity from the land comes from a combined effort of the intelligent application of mind and body while using the natural capital to grow two ears of corn or blades of grass where one grew before.
Productivity is the passkey to a country’s wealth, yet the wealth of a nation is not redeemable by governments or councils who, of themselves, create very little.
Productivity lives on with all those engaged in its creation yet working alongside others who also dedicate themselves to assist in achieving better outcomes. Sadly, those who are drawn to condemn productivity continue to find solace with their ability to force an authority to control that which they have never created — your productivity in whatever the field of endeavour you choose.
So, when society says that we should listen more closely to those who have never found it necessary to perform in the same arena or even under the same sky, we all lose by default.
For as long as the waters of the Manuherikia flow downhill, its use must be for a productive purpose. At least until storage allows for other more frivolous uses, but only after the work is done and before New Zealand slides into Third World status.
— Gerrard Eckhoff is a retired Central Otago farmer and former Otago regional councillor and Act New Zealand MP.
