ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY SCREWS US OVER
Some brief background.......I am proudly Christchurch born-and-bred but previously I have lived in Mid-Canterbury for some 10+ years during my teens and young adult life, Then I moved to Perth and Outback Western Australian Farmlands areas where I have been for the last 20 years. I'm back home in Christchurch now and catching up on what's been happening while I'm away
Thursday 23 March was World Water Day and on the preceding Wednesday night the TV-3 program "Campbell Live" featured several water stories.
Canterbury, is one of the driest Provinces in NZ with just 500 mm annual rainfall has recently been turned over to substantial dairying, which is totally unsuited to the climate. The Dairy-farmers get by by irrigating the land heavily using Water Rights that were handed out willy-nilly by Environment Canterbury in the early 1990's. (EC = Govt Dept responsible for bore/river-water allocations)
Firstly, this is environmental suicide, second only in stupidity to Australia's example of SouthWest Qld and NorthWest NSW where Rice and Cotton, the 2 most water in-efficient crops there are, are grown in the desert.....but only by sucking almost every bit of life out of the Murray-Darling river system.
Yep Canterbury's headin' down the same path it seems. Dunsandel area for example is extracting 400% the water now, that they used to 15 years ago. Many homes and farmhouses which have bore-wells only 10 or so metres deep have run dry and are forced to drill deeper wells at costs upto $10,000 (or install large rain-water tanks) to ensure their household has sufficient water for normal household purposes.
According to official Environment Canterbury figures the "Irwell" river runs dry only once in 25 years "on average". Yet of late, it has been dry in 7 of the last 9 years. Water quality in all rivers in the Canterbury Plains has degraded significantly because of Nitrates (basically caused by fertiliser run-off from over-fertilised paddocks and animal manures being allowed to enter waterways and catchment areas).
Increasing Nitrate levels contribute to poisonous Blue-Green Algal blooms which can kill fish and frogs etc. I dunno if this regular occurrence of Australia's degraded waterways happens here in Canty yet, but it can't be far off if things keep going the way we're going.
The Campbell Live TV show did question the head honcho SIR KERRY BURKE of Environment Canterbury about whether in the face of this impending ecological disaster, was he going to wind back the water rights already granted (there's no disputing that water was well and truly over-allocated in the early 1990's, when Environment Canterbury was giving out licences in Cornflakes packets).........
His reply.......words to the effect of "We Can't, we signed contracts and we're locked in for 35 years". *Ta Ma Duh*. Well what a load of old rubbish.
Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT actually accusing Environment Canterbury's current administration including SIR KERRY BURKE of being either incompetent or corrupt, but I think whoever WAS in charge in the 1990's should answer to some serious charges.
Let's get something quite clear. Nobody gets a job at EC unless they know their stuff, they don't employ fools and idiots there I'm sure. The science nerd types must have appropriate science tertiary degrees and the administrators and bean-counters would have to have the appropriate qualifications in corporate management. Look mate these people are paid $50k or $100k or $200 Grand a year because they're supposedly top-notch... if they WERE to be so *jing-tzang mei yong-duh*, how on Earth could such high executive salaries be justified ?
So if we can assume they are all competent, why would they make such bad decisions, like for instance signing away 35 year water-rights when they only have say 100 years of historical data to go on, (not a long enough time to get a good long-term "average" in weather terms) plus knowing full well that global climate change is making the climate go haywire etc etc
According to Sherlock Holmes, "eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth". Well I say that some previous corrupt and evil sacks of *Niou-fun*, as employed by Environment Canterbury at the time, (supposedly to look after the welfare of our public resources) took big bribes either in cash or in their Swiss Bank Accounts and signed away Canterbury's future. I hope they rot in Hell.
.....And as for Sir Kerry's comments on Campbell on We night, that 35 year water rights once signed couldn't be broken. Yeah mate. *Jien Tahduh guay* I say *Je shr shuh muh lan dong shi* he's spouting out of his mouth.
In the past Chch residents have had 99 year leases cancelled at the stroke of the local government authority's pen. some years back, I had friends who got caught this way (refer to "catherinejemma.blogspot.com" for my 'Blog entry of October 2005 about halfway down under "NSW Toll Road Rip-Off vs Poor People Lynched on their Leases" for the full details of that story.....sorry I tried to provide a direct link but it didn't work) but try cut-and-pasting this ( catherinejemma.blogspot.com/2005_10_1_catherinejemma_archive.html )
When poor people's 99 year house-section leases can be cancelled so easily (and without the payment of any compensation), anyone who says that 35 year water-rights can't be broken just as easily is talking *Gos se* .
In Australia the whole area of "water rights" has been utterly stuffed up. In some areas for example, farmers ARE NOT allowed to collect and use the rain that falls on their own land, because someone hundreds of kms away has bought "water rights".
We know from many examples in Australia as well as the Middle East and southern Russia that wide-scale irrigation causes land to become contaminated with poisonous salts. The mighty Snowy River in NSW, once the raging torrent of Bushman Poets now has 99 % of it's water taken and it is now down to a pathetic trickle.....not much more than our own nearly-dry Irwell River in places.
I might be just some *jien hwo* but even I could come up with some *jing tsai* ideas to safeguard Canterbury's future and ensure that we have long term sustainable farming here. Environment Canterbury should pull their finger out and start doing properly the job they're paid to do !
I've lived more than 15 years in the salt-laden farmlands of outback WA, where inappropriate farming practices have poisoned hundreds of thousands of acres, ruined for farming or cropping purposes for the next 100 years at least. I just hope and pray that Canterbury isn't roaring headlong along the same path.
Cheers
Cate
24 March 2006
Thursday 23 March was World Water Day and on the preceding Wednesday night the TV-3 program "Campbell Live" featured several water stories.
Canterbury, is one of the driest Provinces in NZ with just 500 mm annual rainfall has recently been turned over to substantial dairying, which is totally unsuited to the climate. The Dairy-farmers get by by irrigating the land heavily using Water Rights that were handed out willy-nilly by Environment Canterbury in the early 1990's. (EC = Govt Dept responsible for bore/river-water allocations)
Firstly, this is environmental suicide, second only in stupidity to Australia's example of SouthWest Qld and NorthWest NSW where Rice and Cotton, the 2 most water in-efficient crops there are, are grown in the desert.....but only by sucking almost every bit of life out of the Murray-Darling river system.
Yep Canterbury's headin' down the same path it seems. Dunsandel area for example is extracting 400% the water now, that they used to 15 years ago. Many homes and farmhouses which have bore-wells only 10 or so metres deep have run dry and are forced to drill deeper wells at costs upto $10,000 (or install large rain-water tanks) to ensure their household has sufficient water for normal household purposes.
According to official Environment Canterbury figures the "Irwell" river runs dry only once in 25 years "on average". Yet of late, it has been dry in 7 of the last 9 years. Water quality in all rivers in the Canterbury Plains has degraded significantly because of Nitrates (basically caused by fertiliser run-off from over-fertilised paddocks and animal manures being allowed to enter waterways and catchment areas).
Increasing Nitrate levels contribute to poisonous Blue-Green Algal blooms which can kill fish and frogs etc. I dunno if this regular occurrence of Australia's degraded waterways happens here in Canty yet, but it can't be far off if things keep going the way we're going.
The Campbell Live TV show did question the head honcho SIR KERRY BURKE of Environment Canterbury about whether in the face of this impending ecological disaster, was he going to wind back the water rights already granted (there's no disputing that water was well and truly over-allocated in the early 1990's, when Environment Canterbury was giving out licences in Cornflakes packets).........
His reply.......words to the effect of "We Can't, we signed contracts and we're locked in for 35 years". *Ta Ma Duh*. Well what a load of old rubbish.
Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT actually accusing Environment Canterbury's current administration including SIR KERRY BURKE of being either incompetent or corrupt, but I think whoever WAS in charge in the 1990's should answer to some serious charges.
Let's get something quite clear. Nobody gets a job at EC unless they know their stuff, they don't employ fools and idiots there I'm sure. The science nerd types must have appropriate science tertiary degrees and the administrators and bean-counters would have to have the appropriate qualifications in corporate management. Look mate these people are paid $50k or $100k or $200 Grand a year because they're supposedly top-notch... if they WERE to be so *jing-tzang mei yong-duh*, how on Earth could such high executive salaries be justified ?
So if we can assume they are all competent, why would they make such bad decisions, like for instance signing away 35 year water-rights when they only have say 100 years of historical data to go on, (not a long enough time to get a good long-term "average" in weather terms) plus knowing full well that global climate change is making the climate go haywire etc etc
According to Sherlock Holmes, "eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however unlikely, must be the truth". Well I say that some previous corrupt and evil sacks of *Niou-fun*, as employed by Environment Canterbury at the time, (supposedly to look after the welfare of our public resources) took big bribes either in cash or in their Swiss Bank Accounts and signed away Canterbury's future. I hope they rot in Hell.
.....And as for Sir Kerry's comments on Campbell on We night, that 35 year water rights once signed couldn't be broken. Yeah mate. *Jien Tahduh guay* I say *Je shr shuh muh lan dong shi* he's spouting out of his mouth.
In the past Chch residents have had 99 year leases cancelled at the stroke of the local government authority's pen. some years back, I had friends who got caught this way (refer to "catherinejemma.blogspot.com" for my 'Blog entry of October 2005 about halfway down under "NSW Toll Road Rip-Off vs Poor People Lynched on their Leases" for the full details of that story.....sorry I tried to provide a direct link but it didn't work) but try cut-and-pasting this ( catherinejemma.blogspot.com/2005_10_1_catherinejemma_archive.html )
When poor people's 99 year house-section leases can be cancelled so easily (and without the payment of any compensation), anyone who says that 35 year water-rights can't be broken just as easily is talking *Gos se* .
In Australia the whole area of "water rights" has been utterly stuffed up. In some areas for example, farmers ARE NOT allowed to collect and use the rain that falls on their own land, because someone hundreds of kms away has bought "water rights".
We know from many examples in Australia as well as the Middle East and southern Russia that wide-scale irrigation causes land to become contaminated with poisonous salts. The mighty Snowy River in NSW, once the raging torrent of Bushman Poets now has 99 % of it's water taken and it is now down to a pathetic trickle.....not much more than our own nearly-dry Irwell River in places.
I might be just some *jien hwo* but even I could come up with some *jing tsai* ideas to safeguard Canterbury's future and ensure that we have long term sustainable farming here. Environment Canterbury should pull their finger out and start doing properly the job they're paid to do !
I've lived more than 15 years in the salt-laden farmlands of outback WA, where inappropriate farming practices have poisoned hundreds of thousands of acres, ruined for farming or cropping purposes for the next 100 years at least. I just hope and pray that Canterbury isn't roaring headlong along the same path.
Cheers
Cate
24 March 2006
posted by Catherine Jemma at 7:09 am
1 comments
