12,000 New Zealanders join Green Party’s call for safe, swimmable rivers

When: Today, 22 February 2017 at 12.30pm

Where: Parliament steps

Who: Green MP Catherine Delahunty will show a list of 12,000 names we have collected on our Swimmable Rivers campaign calling for the standard for freshwater to be raised to ‘swimmable’ from the current standard of ‘wadeable’.

More than 12,000 New Zealanders have joined the Green Party in demanding rivers that are clean enough to swim in,” said Green Party water spokesperson Catherine Delahunty

“We’re letting the Government know that the Green Party, along with 12,000 New Zealanders who have signed our petition, are tired of wading and waiting for swimmable rivers: we want swimmable rivers now,” says Ms Delahunty.

“The Green Party is the only political party with the solutions that will make our rivers safe for swimming again. We’ll fight for our rivers because that’s what New Zealanders want and deserve.

“Amending the National Policy Statement for Freshwater so that all water bodies are required to be safe for swimming is a start, but we need to address the problem of too many cows on our farms, our broken stormwater and sewerage systems, and flawed urban design before we can achieve that standard.

“We will axe government subsidies for industrial irrigation, which creates high water dependency and enables destructive intensive agriculture.

“We have also called for a commercial price on water, because the irrigators and water bottling companies don’t seem to realise using water is a privilege, not a right.

“The Government has failed our waterways and those who love them. Our kids and grandkids are missing out on an essential experience – swimming in clean, healthy rivers.

“Environment Minister Nick Smith is to announce changes to freshwater policy this week. We hope that it is a change of standard to swimmable all the time, so that our kids and grandkids don’t miss out,” said Ms Delahunty.

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