The most important thing about water is – that when added to a healthy slug of London Hill gin, in a good crystal glass – it produces the most pleasant drink known to man.
But water has other qualities. It is absolutely essential for life as we know it and yet we seem to abuse our water supplies at every turn. We pollute our waterways, we allow contaminants to soak down into the aquifer and most importantly, we allow our waterways to be raped and pillaged by commercial interests.
Why do we do that?
We give commercial interests the right to take enormous amounts of water from our rivers and then complain that the reduced flow means that our fisheries are destroyed. Why don’t we think of these things before we consent to millions of gallons of water being extracted for irrigation.
Surely life’s all about achieving a reasonable balance. And equally surely – in Hawke’s Bay – we have got that balance all wrong. If you don’t believe me, go and asks the residents of Bridge Pa about the fact that they have had no water in their taps in recent weeks. Drive over the bridges in Central Hawke’s Bay and see the pathetic slimy waterways where once we had clean flowing rivers.
We need to address these problems.
We need to establish policies that protect our environment – in particular our water supply.
I would hate it to be said that I am anti commercial interests. In fact I am very much in favour of commercial development in Hawke’s Bay. However, natural resources like water are a finite resource and we need to protect finite resources.
So whose responsibility is it to protect our water supplies? The short answer of course is all of ours but practically the responsibility in Hawke’s Bay is with the Regional Council – and frankly so far – they have let us down.
We all need to care for our waterways and to demand that our council’s do the same – if for no other reason than straight gin knocks me around a bit.
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