Our freshwater 2020

It builds on information that has been presented in previous reports, adding some new and updated data and more analysis to explore the most significant issues affecting freshwater today.

As a nation, we care deeply about our freshwater. Māori tribal identity is linked to freshwater with each water body having its own mauri (life force). Great care must be taken in managing human impacts on freshwater.

This report can help us understand how the way we live affects our freshwater, and provides evidence to decide where we want to make changes.

This is a summary of the full report.

Freshwater is in many different but connected forms

Ki uta ki tai – from the mountains to the sea – describes the journey that water makes across land as small streams combine and grow bigger, become rivers that reach estuaries, and eventually meet with the sea. Lakes, wetlands, and underground aquifers are also part of this connected system.

Each catchment is different

A catchment gathers and funnels water downstream. Each catchment in Aotearoa New Zealand has a distinct mix of climate, geology, biodiversity, and land uses (like cities, towns, farms, horticulture, and plantation forests) that all influence the state of the water within it.

Not all water moves quickly

It can take decades or more – the lag time – for rainwater to move through the soil and into aquifers, sometimes back to rivers and lakes, then exit the catchment. Some of the effects we see today are legacies from previous generations.

Individual activities and changes can add up

Activities that happen in a large part of a catchment can add up to a substantial pressure, even if each one seems to have a small effect on its own. The story of īnanga (one species caught as whitebait) illustrates this concept through the report. It shows how pollution, habitat changes, and a changing climate for example, can compound and cause cumulative effects on this taonga fish species.

Healthy ecosystems

Ecosystems are a complex tangle of relationships between living things and the environment. Five components are used to assess the health of an ecosystem – aquatic life, habitat, water quality, water quantity, and ecological processes (how things interact). Although it can be hard to measure every component in each catchment, understanding the health of an ecosystem as a whole is important when we are assessing the state of our freshwater.

Issue 1: Our native freshwater species and ecosystems are under threat

Our native freshwater species, habitats, and ecosystems are affected by the way we use our land, the species we have introduced, and the modifications we have made to natural waterways.

New Zealand has a diverse and unique range of freshwater species, habitats, and ecosystems but many are under threat and continue to decline. These declines are the result of:

• converting land to cities, towns, farms, and plantation forests by clearing native forest and draining wetlands
• changing waterways from their natural form and building in-stream structures like weirs
• reducing flows
• bringing new species into the country intentionally or accidentally.

Collectively these changes put our species at risk, reduce the benefits we receive from nature, and affect our way of life and connection to freshwater.

Read the section now - Issue 1: Our native freshwater species and ecosystems are under threat

Issue 2: Water is polluted in urban, farming, and forestry areas

The way we live and use our land can result in excess nutrients (like nitrogen), chemicals, pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms), and sediment entering freshwater and causing harm.

Pollution affects almost all of our rivers and many of our lakes and aquifers. Groundwater quality is mixed but is improving in many places.

• Pesticides have been detected in groundwater at many sites.
• Concentrations of pollutants (nutrients, chemicals, pathogens, and sediment) in freshwater are higher in urban, farming, and forestry areas than in natural conditions – sometimes many times higher.
• Some freshwater contains emerging contaminants but mostly at low levels.

Water pollution is not the result of any single land use, but comes from the mosaic of cities, farms, and plantation forests we have in most catchments.

Applying pesticides and fertilisers, increasing the number of cattle per hectare, felling and replanting pine trees, and faulty wastewater and stormwater infrastructure are all examples of activities that contribute to water pollution.

Read the section now - Issue 2: Water is polluted in urban, farming, and forestry areas

Issue 3: Changing water flows affect our freshwater

The changes we have made to the water levels, flows, and courses in our rivers and aquifers are affecting our freshwater.

We use and store large quantities of freshwater for irrigation, hydroelectricity generation, and in our homes.

Low river flows reduce the habitat for freshwater fish and  other species. The journeys that native fish need to make up and downstream to complete their life cycles are more difficult or impossible when there are low flows and barriers like weirs and dams in rivers and streams.

Reduced or less variable flows can increase the temperature and the concentration of nutrients and pathogens in a waterway, and increase the chances of harmful algal blooms.

Read the section now - Issue 3: Changing water flows affect our freshwater

Issue 4: Climate change is affecting freshwater in Aotearoa New Zealand

Changes to our climate are already being observed. Some changes are significantly different from pre-industrial conditions (temperature, glacier ice extent, sea level), while others (extreme rainfall) cannot be detected consistently yet.

Climate change is expected to affect when, where, and how much rainfall, snowfall, and drought occur. This may change the amount of water in our soil and in glaciers, lakes, rivers, and groundwater.

The frequency of extreme weather events is expected to increase. The flows, mixing, and temperature of water in lakes, rivers, and groundwater is also projected to change.

How much our climate and oceans warm and change depends on global emissions, but how emissions will change into the future is unknown.

Ultimately all these changes will affect what we do (including where and how we produce food), our economy, and how and where we live. The things we value, including our health, culture, and opportunities for recreation may also be affected.

Read the section now - Issue 4: Climate change is affecting freshwater in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Environmental indicators and datasets

Access the new and updated indicators for Our freshwater 2020 on the Stats NZ website.

Access the datasets from Our Freshwater 2020 on the MfE DataService. Select 'Recently added' from the settings menu to access the datasets used in this report.

A word from the Secretary for the Environment

As a nation, we value and care deeply about our freshwater – for its own sake as well as the benefits it provides for our wellbeing and our economy.

Our freshwater 2020 lands at a time when Aotearoa New Zealand is in the midst of a discussion about what is required to improve the health of our freshwater. There is broad and increasing recognition that things need to change, and a growing willingness to act.
This report provides the evidence to enable an open and honest conversation about our choices going forward. It builds on the information we have presented in previous reports but goes deeper into the evidence, to provide insights on the most pressing issues for freshwater today and into the future.

Our freshwater 2020 aims to tell a national story, while recognising that significant regional variations exist. Each catchment has a distinct mix of climate, geology, and land uses within it. The combination of these features, and how (and how fast) water moves from sky to soil and groundwater and from mountains to sea, makes it challenging to provide definitive statements about the trends we are seeing at a national level.

What we can take from the report, however, is that the choices we make have impacts on our freshwater. How we live in our towns and cities, and the way we sustain our economy with factories, farms and forests all make a contribution.

Just as regional and catchment variations influence freshwater locally, solutions are likely to be effective at these scales too. Our freshwater 2020 features examples where different groups – schools, communities, tangata whenua, farmers, businesses, and central and local government – are working together towards a common goal.

Understanding the current state of our freshwater and the pressures on it, is essential groundwork for decisions about where to put our efforts.

A word from the Government Statistician

The data and science presented here is up to date and the best available, but there is much more we need to know. A healthy environment underpins our wellbeing and economic prosperity, yet investment in environmental data has lagged behind other data, like economic data.

Work is underway to build an environmental monitoring and reporting system that will be foundational for decision making and community action. It will take time and investment, but there is clear consensus around the importance of this work.

Changes in the state of our freshwater – both positive and negative – can take time. Some of the effects we are seeing today are legacies from our parents and grandparents. In some places we can expect to wait decades to see the results of our efforts to raise the health and mana of water. Nevertheless, we can’t afford to slow the pace of change.

Whatever your connection to water, we trust this report will inform your discussions about ensuring the freshwater our children and mokopuna inherit is healthy, vital, and plentiful.

Correction: 22 April 2020

We have corrected a sentence on page 3 of Our freshwater 2020 summary. The sentence 'Most of these species (32 of the 39) are members of the galaxiidae family, which includes all whitebait and mudfish species' has been changed to 'Most of these species (32 of the 39) are members of the galaxiidae family, which includes all mudfish and four whitebait species'.

We have corrected the ‘Issues that affect our freshwater environment’ infographic on page 5. The infographic said 67–72% of lakes in urban, pastoral, and forestry areas are in poor ecological health (according to computer models). This has been corrected to 67–77% of lakes in urban, pastoral, and forestry areas are in poor ecological health (according to computer models).

Correction: 26 May 2020

We have made a correction to the ‘Issues that affect our freshwater environment’ infographic on page 5. The infographic incorrectly labelled a portion of the pie graph representing the river length that exceeds water quality guidelines as ‘unhealthy’.  This label has been removed.

Correction: 20 July 2020

We have corrected four sentences in the Canterbury mudfish case study on page 17.

For the sentences ‘But Canterbury mudfish have not been adaptable enough to thrive in the combination of changes that people have made to their habitat in the past 100 years. They were originally found throughout the Canterbury Plains but are now limited to small pockets of remaining wetland from Christchurch to Timaru’, the time period has been changed to ‘the past 150 years’ and the range has been changed to ‘small pockets of remaining wetland from Christchurch to the Waitaki River’.

For the sentence ‘Pupils and staff at St Andrew’s School in Timaru are champions for the species’, the location has been changed to ‘near Timaru’.

For the sentence ‘Good numbers of mudfish were living further upstream, but this barrier will give them 10 times more habitat that is protected from trout and allow the population to grow’, the amount of habitat has been changed to ‘10 percent more’.

We have corrected two sentences on page 47.

For the sentence ‘Monitoring untreated water in aquifers for 2014–18 found that 95 percent of 174 sites failed to meet the drinking water standard for E. coli on at least one occasion’, this statistic has been changed to ‘68 percent of 364 sites’.

For the sentence ‘The drinking water standard of 11.3 grams per cubic metre of nitrate-nitrogen was also exceeded on at least one occasion at 23 percent of 456 sites tested, this statistic has been changed to ‘19 percent of 433 sites’.

We have corrected a sentence on page 54.

The sentence ‘For 2014, New Zealand’s reported volume of water take per person was 2.2 million litres’ has been changed to ‘For 2014, New Zealand’s consented water allocation per person was 2.2 million litres’.

We have corrected the map presented as figure 14 on page 56. The map erroneously identified a much larger proportion of New Zealand’s land area as artificially drained than is estimated (particularly in Northland, Fiordland and Stewart Island), and has been updated to correct this.

Correction: June 2021

We have corrected a sentence on page 39 of Our freshwater 2020. The sentence 'For 2014–18, 44 percent of 424 monitored sites across the country had median nitrate-nitrogen concentrations above the concentrations expected to occur naturally (Daughney & Reeves, 2005; Morgenstern & Daughney, 2012)’ has been changed to 'For 2014–18, 44 percent of 424 monitored sites across the country had median nitrate-nitrogen concentrations that indicate that groundwater in these locations has been influenced by industrialised agriculture and is highly likely to have been impacted by human activity (Morgenstern & Daughney, 2012; Daughney & Reeves, 2005)'.