As one of the community representatives on the Whangamarino and Lake Waikare working group I wanted to provide an update from the community perspective.
I am a long-time resident in the village, previous chair of the Te Kauwhata Community (ending in 2025), chair of the Te Kauwhata Water Association and the Aparangi Retirement Trust Board. I am also a JP and through this and all my other community work, have a large number of community contacts and associations.
I came to the working group with this strong community lens, along with a background as a Fellow and past president of Engineering NZ, and a post graduate qualification in environmental engineering, for which I also hold the Arthur Mead Award and as a former board member of Cawthron in Nelson. I also chair a number of environmental-focussed companies.
The committee met regularly over the last two years to consider issues in the area and potential restoration plan for both. The lake is shallow, looks dirty and regularly hosts brightly coloured algal blooms. The Wetlands are neglected and untidy and have regular outbreaks of botulism. Despite these challenges, it is a home for flora and fauna, and the rate swamp helmet native orchid.
A long-awaited plan to improve the condition of both outstanding features has been prepared and now is the time for staging, business cases and potential timing for the improvements.
The last 50 years have seen a number of plans and scientific papers, but little concerted action on improvement. Individuals around the lake have made small improvements over the years, but this plan brings together a whole of area improvement.
The working group has membership from Iwi, Farmers, TK Community, WRC, WDC, DOC and Fish and Game. All agree that action is required to improve and rehabilitate the wetlands and the lake.
The Te Kauwhata community is well aware of the progress of the group, through regular meetings, updates and extensive editorial in the local newspaper as well as strong social media updates. There is also a community-wide desire to see the lake suitable for recreation and ths has been raised many times both to District and Regional councillors and staff.
We all realise that it will take time, but a staged plan needs to start now. There have been many meetings that have ended with promises to ‘do something’, but in reality, nothing has ever been done on the scale and over the time frame needed to address all the contributing issues
