Lively Debate About Water Expected at Conference

THE state of our rivers, streams and lakes will come under scrutiny at a conference in Queenstown next month.

The conference will bring together the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society and the Australian Society for Limnology (the study of inland waters) and the public will be able to tap into the collective knowledge of specialists during a free community forum to be held as part of the event.

Conference chairman and Environment Southland environmental information manager Chris Arbuckle said he was predicting a lively and potentially contentious debate about issues such as water quality, allocation and management regimes.

The conference theme is Water — An Inconvenient Truth, he said.

“There will be people with quite diverse views so we’re expecting some very stimulating discussions.” There were some troubling challenges for freshwater resources all around the globe, including here in New Zealand, Mr Arbuckle said.

“Professor Colin Townsend, one of the conference organisers, notes that water resource management has three strands — ecological, economic and social, and a one-eyed approach is often doomed to failure.” The conference programme reflected the multi- disciplinary nature of the problem, Mr Arbuckle said.

“Much of the information needed to make informed decisions about the effects of land use on streams and water quality has been available for over 20 years but it’s really only in the last 10 years that we have seen that science reflected in policy,” he said. “Now people realise that communities have a clear role in the management of their resources in their region.” Environment Southland is a major sponsor of the week-long event, which will feature more than 250 presentations.

Mr Arbuckle predicted strong interest in the community forum, which would be held on December 2, and said members of the public could register to attend.

Registration information and programme details are available on the Environment Southland website (www.es.govt.nz).

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