We had to go for it. At the crack of dawn today, a team of our activists began an occupation of the Central Plains Water (CPW) irrigation dam.

If you want to join us - we’re on Coxs Road, Springfield. Time is of the essence, and the more people who come down and support, the more powerful our message becomes - and the better the scene is set for September 14th!

 

It’s been a hectic few days. We've been busy finalising logistics for the 14th September peaceful protest that you’re registered for, but then CPW’s lawyers sent a letter threatening an injunction. They wanted to shut down any possibility of a protest before it had even started.

We were faced with a number of options. We could have backed down. We could have tried to argue it in court.

Instead, we just went for it and... Read more >

Early this morning, we travelled to the proposed site of the Ruataniwha irrigation dam in Hawke’s Bay. With a small crane we uplifted the construction site office, put it on the back of a truck and drove it 100kms to Napier.  There we left it at the door of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC).

There is huge opposition to the Ruataniwha dam because it would drive industrial dairying and further pollute Hawke’s Bay’s freshwater.  It would also need to be subsidised with millions of tax and ratepayer dollars.  Read more >

Over 40,000 people have already signed the petition to stop Government-funded river pollution, and 8,500 have sent a direct message to the HBRC – it’s clear as day that this is an issue that deeply resonates with New Zealanders.

If the Ruataniwha dam goes ahead, it will have r...

The proposed Ruataniwha Dam is the poster child of Big Irrigation.  

It stands as a symbol of the Government's agenda to prop up industrial dairying despite the fact that it’s poisoning our waterways and indebting farmers.

Because of this we can be assured that, blinded by ideology and greed the Government and those with vested interests will stop at nothing to get the dam thing built.

So even though the Court of Appeal has ruled that the dam company cannot kill the 22-hectare piece of forest protected by the Conservation Act that is getting in the way of their dam we cannot celebrate the demise of the dam just yet.

When it comes to that precious piece of conservation land here is what could happen next:

They could try, using the Public Works Act to forcibly take this forest from the h...

In the last two weeks, roughly 4500 adults and children have been struck down with a waterborne gastro illness found in Havelock North’s water supply.

That’s a third of the town’s entire population.

Most likely source? Ruminant farm animals - quite possibly cows.

The crisis has sparked concerns about industrial agriculture - not just in the Hawke’s Bay but across New Zealand.

Leading freshwater scientist Mike Joy says this is a case of water mismanagement “coming home to roost….we are seeing the legacy of not looking after our water”.

Public health professor Michael Baker says New Zealand’s drinking water is “under huge pressure from…intensification of dairying, which is obviously contaminating surface water a lot more.”

The reasonable thing to do in the face of the Hawke’s Bay crisis would be ... Read more >

There’s no question about it -  drought is causing serious problems for our farmers and communities.

So what do we do about it? Dams and irrigation are often touted as the best way to deal with increasing dry spells, especially in regions with low rainfall.  But what’s actually happening is water captured for irrigation in New Zealand  isn’t just being used to help tide farms over during droughts. It’s being used to intensify farming.

So what happens if droughts keep getting worse, and the irrigated water that allowed farms to intensify is no longer there?  We only need look to Opuha dam in Canterbury to see how this critical problem plays out.

The Opuha dam was built in 1998 with the promise of helping farmers through the tough droughts that had been hitting Canterbury. In the summer of 2... Read more >