World Water Day (22 March) is a United Nations initiative to focus attention on the importance of water. For New Zealand, it’s an opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of the many thousands of New Zealanders who are taking action to improve water quality and restore our streams, lakes and rivers.
We support a lot of great initiatives through our funding programmes
The Freshwater Improvement Fund has $47 million allocated to 34 projects across the country.
And we’re seeing results from earlier funding allocations such as the Te Mana o Te Wai fund. For example the Whangawehi Catchment Management Group, a Hawkes Bay-based catchment restoration project, has achieved significant improvements in water quality in the Whangawehi River and in protecting native plants and animals. (Pictured)
We’ve also supported other long term projects such as:
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the Lake Taupō protection project. Watch the video on YouTube and Find out more
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the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes programme with a $72 million contribution to restoring the quality of the lakes
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jointly commissioning an independent report in the Horizons region which has shown that water quality for sediment and E. coli have improved over the past 7-10 years.
On a smaller scale, many of the 1100 schools involved in the Enviroschools programme are involved in restoring their local waterways.
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