Water policy and the Ministry for the Environment
The manager of any business requires good information about the resources for which they are responsible. The first conclusion of the 1997 report on the State of New Zealand’s Environment was that “New Zealand’s environmental information needs considerable upgrading if the state of the nation’s environment is to be accurately described and trends detected.” In response, the Government initiated the Environmental Performance Indicators Programme. The purpose of the EPI Programme is to develop and use indicators to measure and report how well we are looking after our environment. We have worked closely with NIWA and other Crown Research Institutes, Government departments, regional councils, and other agencies to develop an agreed set of indicators.
We have now entered the next phase of reporting environmental information. This issue of Water Resources Update marks a significant milestone in the regular reporting of water resource information in New Zealand. NIWA’s Rick Pridmore notes that the objectives of the National Centre for Water Resources are to deliver science, technology, and resource management services to New Zealand in the field of water resources, including both water quality and water quantity.
The initial indicators selected by NIWA will provide useful information to water managers and the public alike. NIWA hopes to move beyond reporting environmental quality towards predicting it. That represents a significant challenge! We also need to link this information to that collected and reported by regional councils and other agencies. But we need to ensure that the public are not bombarded by a plethora of data – we face a significant challenge in ensuring that reported information is:
- scientifically defensible
- understandable by the public
- timely
- consistent, so that there is no conflict between reporting agencies.
I'm pleased to see that the National Centre for Water Resources has made a great start and one that the Ministry for the Environment is pleased to support.
Lindsay Gow Acting Chief Executive Ministry for the Environment