Saturday, August 11 - Wellington

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Forest and Bird welcomes innovative water management by North Shore City Council

Forest and Bird today congratulated North Shore City Council for their initiative to provide incentives to residents to install rainwater tanks.

Eric Pyle, Forest and Bird’s Conservation Manager said “this initiative by North Shore City Council will help save water and reduce stormwater flows”.

“Forest and Bird has been promoting this kind of initiative for some time. We welcome this initiative as a way of making urban areas more sustainable,” Mr Pyle said.

Water collected in tanks can be used for washing cars, watering the garden and other uses that don’t require drinking-quality water. “Rainwater tanks could potentially reduce household potable water use by up to 50%” Mr Pyle said.

“This initiative will help reduce the water supply problems faced in the Auckland Region,” said Mr Pyle. “If this type of initiative had been introduced years ago, the Waikato Pipeline may not have been needed”.

“Infill housing, larger house sizes and more concrete areas means runoff enters stormwater drains rather than draining through the soil”, Mr Pyle said. “Encouraging residents to install rainwater tanks and other household stormwater initiatives being promoted by North Shore City Council will help reduce stormwater flows and pollution – a huge issue for Auckland”.

“It is refreshing to see councils introducing practical and innovative methods to address urban water issues,” said Mr Pyle.

ENDS

Contact: Eric Pyle, Conservation Manager – Ph. 04 385 7374 work; 025 227 8420 mobile.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>