Lake Hayes purifying work ends, more funding sought

The Mana Tahuna Charitable Trust held a celebration at the Lake Hayes Pavilion yesterday to recognise the work it has done to help purify Lake Hayes.

The celebration also marked the end of the Jobs For Nature Programme funding for the project.

Its funding stretched across multiple government agencies to benefit the environment, people and the regions.

It was created by the previous government as part of the Covid-19 recovery package.

Jobs for Nature funding provided Mana Tahuna with $4.4 5million over the past three years, to help improve the water quality of Lake Hayes.

Mana Tahuna environmental projects manager, Sarah Mukai, said "purifying the lake is so important".

"From a Maori perspective, the water in the lake should be drinkable, yet from time to time it is still closed for swimming in summer."

Working alongside Mana Tahuna on the project is E3Scientific, an NZ environmental science consultancy, which has undertaken reviews of the lake, and come up with ideas on improving purification.

E3Scientific managing director Glenn Davis, said Lake Hayes had started to become unlivable for fish and dangerous for human use.

"As one of the most photographed lakes in New Zealand, it is at the heart of our tourism industry, so it would seem a shame to not improve it.

"Through our reviews, it became quite clear that through reducing toxic sediment in the lake, we can fix it."

As part of the work over the past three years, Mana Tahuna has installed two sediment traps, which have removed 400 tonnes of sediment from Lake Hayes and made an impact on improving the water quality.

Mana Tahuna has also achieved several other milestones to help with purification of Lake Hayes.

These included planting 138,000 native plants along streams and waterways near the lake, placing 75 hectares of nearby land under predator control, putting in 6.7km of fencing and clearing 5 hectares of crack willow.

The programme created 60 full time jobs, and restored wetlands at the northern end of the lake.

Although Mana Tahuna’s Jobs For Nature funding has ended, work still needed to be done.

Mr Davis pointed out that purifying the lake could take decades.

"We need to figure out how we could go about maintaining the sediment traps we already have installed.

"There are still 8km of waterways which need repairing and planting, and numerous wetlands to be reactivated."

Ms Mukai said additional funding would continue to be sought to at least maintain the plants and sediment traps already established.