Newsletter - October 2008
Welcome
Welcome to this month's update on the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, an eight-month programme of stakeholder meetings, submissions and public consultation to develop a community-led strategy for management of the region's water resources. In this issue we report on the Uses and Benefits Report, the first of the Special Topic meetings, and update you on progress towards the next milestone.
A Message from the Chairman
The CWMS Programme is making good progress and is now moving into a public consultation phase, the first of two public engagement phases that will determine the strategy's final form.
Details of how to make a submission on the programme's Uses and Benefits Report are covered in this newsletter. Anyone with an interest in the future of Canterbury's water should provide feedback on the report, to ensure it reflects the full range of values and opinions in the community.
Having now been able to attend a number of stakeholder meetings and, most recently, some topic-specific meetings, I have been impressed with the quality of discussion. None of them are easy issues and we will have to work very hard to find solutions that we can all live with.
The discussion is now moving towards projects and approaches. For example, at a recent meeting there was robust discussion on subjects such as rural zoning based on water use, protection of the aquifer and minimum river flows. It's too early to draw any conclusions, but this quality of discussion is very valuable.
Looking ahead, as proposals emerge they will be summarised into a set of distinct water options to be released for the programme's second public consultation phase in mid-2009.
All of this is some way off, and the Steering Group will make use of this lead up time to continue building our knowledge of stakeholder views and increasing general awareness and understanding of water issues in Canterbury.
We will continue to update the programme's website (www.canterburywater.org.nz) at regular intervals, in addition to sending out these email newsletters. At the same time Environment Canterbury is about to start a public awareness programme that will focus on the essential facts and figures about the region's water resources. The programme will include things like special reports in “Living Here,” the ECan news sheet.
The overall response to the programme shows that people are keen to be involved in a process that will guide the way water is used and managed to meet our present needs, and for future generations.
Bede O'Malley
Mayor, Ashburton District
Chairman of the Steering Group
Canterbury Water's Uses and Benefits - Report now Available
The CWMS programme has achieved a major milestone with the completion of a report summarising the community's views and values relating to water.
The Uses and Benefits Report, which draws together ideas from meetings around the region, is now available for public comment. This is one of two consultation stages in this region-wide strategic planning process – the second one being in mid 2009 when a set of options will be released for public comment.
The report contains 10 principles which have been identified by stakeholders as fundamental to a long term plan for managing Canterbury's groundwater and surface water resources. These principles, once agreed, would apply to all options that may be considered for future water management. The Steering Group is eager to hear public opinions on these principles.
In addition, participants' contributions on uses and benefits are summarised in three important categories: ideas that are held by most participants, or many participants, or just some of the people involved.
The report then goes on to list a schedule of water's uses and benefits under the headings of economic uses, biodiversity, cultural, social uses (rural and urban); and recreational water uses.
Under each of these headings there is a series of short statements about how water is used, and what the benefits of these uses are. The full schedule of stakeholder contributions is gradually being loaded into a web site to be used to build the strategy. If you would like to review this schedule and details of how it is being created please register on the Canterbury Water web site in the public consultation section. You will then be invited to a "clinic" where you will be guided through this web information and the Water Management Strategy process.
We would especially like stakeholders who have been involved in the programme to comment on these uses and benefits. These comments include the accuracy of language in recording their views and whether the distillation has been aggregated in an appropriate way. We would also be pleased for anyone else to comment.
The Uses and Benefits report is a significant step towards the development of a management strategy that can be shared by communities throughout Canterbury, and implemented through the planning regulatory authorities.
"The report is an indication of how important water is to everyone in Canterbury, and how uses are valued differently by different people," says Steering Group Chair Bede O'Malley.
"The key issue at this stage of the process is whether the Uses and Benefits Report is a full and accurate summary of the all the uses and benefits of water resources in Canterbury. In particular, the Steering Group wants to hear from anyone who believes any specific uses and benefits have been overlooked, or if any should be omitted.
A full copy of the Uses and Benefits report is on the project website (www.canterburywater.org.nz).
You can send your feedback by:
Mail: Canterbury Water Management Strategy, PO Box 345, Christchurch
Email:info@canterburywater.org.nz
Website:http://www.canterburywater.org.nz/getting-involved/
Submissions will remain open until 27October 2008. A final report, including input received from the public, will be published on the website in the week commencing 17 November 2008.
Issues Examined in Special Topic Groups
The first few in a series of special topic workshops have been completed, as the Canterbury Water Management Strategy programme moves into a finer level of detail. The workshops are all being held in Christchurch. A further round of locality-based stakeholder workshops will be held around the region in early 2009.
These stakeholder workshops are providing an opportunity for an in depth look into particular areas: biodiversity, land use intensification, water quality, tourism, energy and youth issues.
Participants are being asked to step out to 2020 and consider how they would like to see water being managed at that time in relation to each topic. Participants are then invited to identify the steps required to reach these visions, together with challenges and barriers that need to be overcome. This material will be fed into the strategy-development process.
Participation in the workshops is gradually increasing as the word gets around on the high quality of the discussion. The workshops continue until 5 November, at the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, on the corner of Madras Street, in central Christchurch. Anyone wanting to participate should register by calling 0800 677 748 or emailing info@canterburywater.org.nz
On to Our Next Milestone
The Programme has now reached its next major step - Milestone 5 – in which the strategies and sub-strategies that have been identified in the earlier stages of the project will be refined.
The aim is to develop the level of depth and sophistication of these ideas, so that some initial prioritisation of the projects can begin. From October 2008 to March 2009 there will be ongoing clusters of stakeholder workshops where projects and results that could lead to the myriad of uses and benefits identified in the report will be discussed.
As these ideas and priorities take shape, the Steering Group will bring in further technical input as required. This will involve the extraction of some projects for priority consideration, and will lead to a “first cut” of a strategic framework for water management in Canterbury. This part of the process will require a high level of involvement from stakeholders. Some, who may have conflicting interests, will be encouraged to work together over particular projects to ensure that conflicting interests are managed as well as possible. The ideas and information that comes out of these meetings will ultimately be distilled into a manageable number of future options that will be made available for the programme's major public consultation phase, in April-May 2009. We'll keep you posted on progress through this e-newsletter.