A more simple, easy to use water and land management plan for the Canterbury region, which will also affect most of the Waitaki River and catchment, is due out from Environment Canterbury in July for public comment.
On April 3, the Waitaki District Council was given a sneak preview of the plan by Environment Canterbury (ECan) commissioner Peter Skelton.
It was one of a series of stakeholder meetings being carried out before the ECan commissioners approve a draft plan for consultation. The aim is to have decisions made on the plan by September next year, which Mr Skelton admitted was a very tight time-frame.
The production of the plan was one of the major tasks set for commissioners when the Government sacked ECan councillors in March 2010 and replaced them.
Prof Skelton personally, sees the plan as one of the legacies he would like to leave when his term as commissioner ends.
The new land and water management plan will replace a plan that is fragmented, complicated and inconsistent.
It has been prepared under the collaborative approach promoted by the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, and will include separate sections incorporating plans produced by community-based committees, including one each for the upper Waitaki and lower Waitaki coastal zones.
The new plan will focus on five key issues - competing demands for water (both for use and the environment), management of existing activities as well as new, adverse effects from abstraction, land use and discharges, the decline of ecological and environmental values and natural hazards (such as floods and slips).
Water quality is also a major issue.
Prof Skelton outlined local issues in the Waitaki catchment, acknowledging the difference between the lower Waitaki-coastal and Upper Waitaki zones.
"A good example is irrigation. The potential for increased productivity and economic growth from more irrigation always needs to be balanced against the long-term gains from environmental and biodiversity protection," he said.
He was confident major challenges of the future would be met using the collaborative approach to water and land management.