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of the Co-chairs
Report
The 2014 – 2015 year has been a time for
the Waikato River Authority to focus on
wider environmental policy changes that
will lead to a healthier Waikato River.
A project of particular significance
this year has been the Healthy Rivers:
Plan for Change/Wai Ora: He Rautaki
Whakapaipai. This undertaking is a
project working with stakeholders
to develop changes to the Waikato
regional plan to help restore and protect
the health and wellbeing of the Waikato
and Waipa rivers. This goal is of course
central to the Vision and Strategy and
so the changes that will eventuate are
of crucial interest to the Authority. The
plan change will help achieve reduction,
over time, of sediment, bacteria and
nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus)
entering water bodies (including
groundwater) in the Waikato and Waipa
River catchments. Waikato and Waipa
River iwi and Waikato Regional Council
are partners in this project with Waikato
River Authority sitting on the project
steering group Te Roopuu Hautuu.
The Authority has also been accorded
observer status on the Collaborative
Stakeholders Group which is effectively
the ‘engine room’ of the project. The
Healthy Rivers Plan is expected to be
notifed by the Waikato Regional Council
next year.
The Authority has also been playing
a key role in the development of
the Waikato River and Waipa River
Restoration Strategy. This master plan
for the restoration of the catchment
got underway in the past year and it
is due for completion in June 2017.
In the coming year the Waipa section
of the Strategy will be completed
along with progress on the upper
Waikato River area along with the lakes
components. The project is being led
in a three-way partnership between
DairyNZ, Waikato Regional Council,
and the Waikato River Authority.
During the year the Authority also made
decisions for its fourth funding round
which allocated $6 million to 33 clean-
up projects. Two major projects, both
in the Waipa River catchment, received
$1 million of funding. This included
implementation work for the Waipa
Catchment Plan particularly around soil
conservation schemes.
The other Waipa project is a partnership
with DairyNZ to develop sustainable
milk plans for dairy farms in the
catchment. The project follows on
Restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River
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