Greenpeace strongly condemns the announcement today of a $56 million government subsidy for additional irrigation infrastructure in rural Canterbury, saying that this will result in increased water pollution and the destruction of fragile freshwater ecosystems.

The Government has announced a $56 million dollar subsidy through the Regional Investment Fund for three water storage projects in the Canterbury region - the Opuha Dam and Irrigation Scheme, the Balmoral Water Storage Facility (Amuri), and the Waimakariri Irrigation Scheme.

Greenpeace spokesperson Will Appelbe says, "It is deeply irresponsible to use public money to fund the expansion of these irrigation schemes, which will lead to more intensive dairy, more cows, and more pollution. This is a dirty deal for dirty water."

"Shane Jones needs to go down and front up to rural communities in Canterbury whose drinking water is already so contaminated with nitrates they can’t safely drink it and explain why he is funding irrigation for dirty dairying that will contaminate their water more.

"Everyone should be able to safely drink the water coming out of their kitchen tap, but right now, some rural communities are facing the reality that they cannot do so, because their drinking water is contaminated with unsafe levels of nitrate."

Elevated levels of nitrate contamination in drinking water has been associated with several health risks including colorectal cancer and preterm birth. Stats New Zealand data released last week revealed that between 2019 and 2024 more than 12% of groundwater monitoring sites exceeded nitrate levels associated with Blue Baby Syndrome.

"The source of nitrate contamination in drinking water is effluent runoff and nitrate leaching from the intensive dairy industry," says Appelbe.

"Subsidising new irrigation infrastructure, which will lead to more intensive dairying and therefore more contamination of groundwater and drinking water, shows that this Government has a total disregard for the health of rural communities who cannot drink the water coming out of their kitchen tap."

Appelbe says this comes off the back of the announcement of a wave of regulation changes that Greenpeace has labelled the Government’s ‘Freshwater Pollution Plan’.

"This Government is seeking to strip back freshwater protections across the board - despite the fact that New Zealanders across the entire political spectrum want to see more protection for freshwater, not less."

"The Government must end all subsidies for irrigation infrastructure immediately, and ensure freshwater pollution from the intensive dairy industry is stopped at the source."

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