Three Waters: Practitioner Focused Solutions for te oranga o te taiao and te mana o te wai

Authors: B. Carter, D. Young (Zealandia Consulting) & C. Feeney (Environmental Communications Ltd)

As an industry, water sector practitioners have largely embraced the challenge of understanding and operationalising te mana o te wai. Putting water first has been central to our work for decades, with less success to show for it, than we would like.

Te mana o te wai offers us an opportunity for us to do better, especially if it is effectively integrated with te oranga o te taiao – the environmental focus of the resource management reforms. However, dialogue around the Three Waters reforms has focused on the structural solution proposed for four water entities. We believe there is also a need to focus on the root causes of the issues that precipitated the reforms.

We as practitioners, came together, to consider our points of view in matters related to the Three Waters Reforms. During our discussions and collaborations, it became clear that to best serve industry and the community at large, our shared understandings needed to be cogently assembled and communicated to our peers.

We hope that our paper can support practitioner focused solutions where there is alignment with te oranga o e taiao and te mana o te wai concepts.