New Zealand’s Sustainable Water Programme of Action - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 323

safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems; and

avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the
environment.

Under the RMA the Crown reserves to itself the right to manage (but not own) water. 5
The fact that water is not 'owned' and is, therefore, a public good is a key policy
consideration in managing any substantial change to New Zealand's water management
framework.
The RMA states that water is a natural resource:
Water —

a. Means water in all its physical forms whether flowing or not and whether over or under

the ground;

b. Includes fresh water, coastal water, and geothermal water;

c. Does not include water in any form while in any pipe, tank, or cistern.

The sustainable water programme of action

This section describes the two main components of the WPoA, water quality and
water allocation.

Water quality
The WPoA is concerned with managing the impacts of rural land use and associated
diffuse (non-point) discharges of contaminants 6 on freshwater quality. While both rural
and urban sources of pollutants contribute to deteriorating water quality the WPoA
focuses on rural land use impacts for the following reasons:

around 60% of New Zealand's land area is under primary production and therefore,
rural land uses have the ability to impact on a large number of waterways;

agriculture is linked to declining water quality in many areas including surface waters
(streams, rivers and lakes) and groundwater systems;

urban areas affect only 3% of New Zealand's length of rivers; and
urban discharges are largely being managed through the local government resource
consent 7 process and by individual users, whereas diffuse discharges to water from
rural land uses are not being addressed well (Ministry for the Environment 2004b).
5.

Water is not privately owned in New Zealand except where enclosed in a pipe, tank or cistern.

6. The RMA definition of 'contaminant' covers any substance (including a gas, odorous

compounds, liquid, solid or micro-organism); energy or heat that when discharged into water, or
onto land, or into air, changes the physical, chemical, or biological condition of that water, land
or air.

7. Individuals and businesses may seek resource consents (often known elsewhere as permits or

licences) to take, use, dam or divert water, or to discharge contaminants to water. Resource
consents to take water may be transferred between different users in specified circumstances, but
there has been only limited use of this opportunity.