WAI Wānaka completes Community Catchment Plan

WAI Wānaka’s work with the community has led to the development of a Community Catchment Plan (CCP) to safeguard water quality and ecosystem function in an integrated way across the whole catchment, encompassing Lake Wānaka, Lake Hāwea and the Clutha, Hāwea and Cardrona Rivers.

The development of the CCP involved residents, community groups, business owners, iwi, visitors, farmers, scientists, Otago Regional Council and Queenstown Lakes District Council, providing an example of how environmental management issues can be addressed through partnership and collaboration.

The two key themes emerging from community input and national guidance are Healthy Ecosystems and Community Wellbeing. The CCP outlines a multi-stakeholder process for future management of the Upper Clutha catchment, setting out 60 actions to be implemented and identifying the organisations best positioned to lead each action. The CCP also makes clear that successful catchment management will require some changes in the way land and water are managed in the Upper Clutha.

Mandy Bell, Chair of the Wānaka Water Project said “Completion of the CCP gives our community a head start when it comes to delivering on the new Action for Healthy Waterways announced last week by the government. WAI Wānaka has demonstrated what can be achieved by a community working together at pace and in the process has established solid connections locally and nationally. We all want the same outcomes for our water and it is encouraging to see positive steps being taken, such as the formation of catchment groups working together to turn ideas into action.”

Megan Williams, the Project Manager for the Wānaka Water Project, confirmed that WAI Wānaka continued to work closely with stakeholders, saying that “the CCP is our community blueprint for the future, guiding the many individuals, community groups and businesses undertaking positive work within the Upper Clutha to safeguard our water, improve ecosystem function and reverse biodiversity loss.”

The CCP emphasises the concept of ki uta ki tai (from the mountains to the sea), which is important in the Upper Clutha given our location at the headwaters of the Clutha River. Our community has a responsibility to safeguard the water in our catchment and to ensure that the water leaving our catchment is of high quality, to avoid problems being passed on to those downstream.

WAI Wānaka thanks all those who contributed to the development of the CCP, particularly the Shaping our Future Water Taskforce, Landpro Limited and Dr Simone Langhans from the University of Otago.

The Community Catchment Plan is available at the Wānaka Library or can be downloaded here. View the full CCP Document or the CCP Summary.

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