The Green Party welcomes Environment Canterbury's decision today to carry a motion declaring a nitrate emergency, and is calling on the Government to take responsibility for the crisis its own policies have fuelled.
"The Government can't wash its hands of its responsibility in worsening this health and environmental emergency," says Green Party Agriculture Spokesperson, Steve Abel.
"Every New Zealander should have confidence that their drinking water is safe and not contaminated by pollution from intensive dairying.
"In just six months, Canterbury has seen 15,000 extra cows added to herds, record breaking expansions which are further enabled by the Government's removal of freshwater protections.
"Intensive dairying is the leading source of nitrate contamination, and we are seeing the consequences in the drinking water of rural communities across the country.
"Nitrate water contamination has links to higher rates of bowel cancer, a disease New Zealanders already experience at alarming rates, and is a risk to babies during pregnancy.
"When the Minister for Agriculture dismisses an emergency declaration like this as a "gimmick", he shows his disregard for the basic right of people to safe drinking water.
"A Green Government would support farmers to move away from intensive dairying, and put a sinking cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser," says Steve Abel.
- Studies show that up to 800,000 mostly rural New Zealanders are at risk from exposure to potentially hazardous levels of nitrate water contamination could cause up to 100 new cases of bowel cancer and 40 deaths every year.
