Grant Kelly

It was a sad day this week seeing a large excavator in our local swimming hole in the Waiaua River changing this popular community spot probably forever. This swimming hole has been there and used by many for years.

Omarumutu School last summer used it in supervised and safe ways in lieu of their swimming pool, which was no longer sustainable.

And I am sure as a kaupapa Maori kura, the learning and the mana of the Waiaua River is important to their curriculum.

The resource consent process managed by Bay of Plenty Regional Council is questionable in this instance when no river users were consulted.

Not the kura, not the children visiting the marae, not the dog swimmers, not the whitebaiters, not the flounder fishers, not the paddle boarders, not the Waiaua valley residents, and not the marae hapu who were out in force a few years ago planting natives on the opposite bank as a natural protection for the river and a retreat back from the river to allow the river its own mauri/life force

The regional council plan to put more earth back on farmers’ eroded land and plant more willows is a historical favourite but has proven not to work as the willows are invasive and now choking the rivers, as is evident in the Waiaua and Te Waiti River catchments, and probably exacerbate flooding.

Smarter environmental thinking now is to allow rivers their natural meandering space, retreat useable farmland further back from the river and plant intensively with non-invasive native species

If the regional council really wants to help protect Waiaua Valley farmland in the new climatic age, then let’s talk stopbanks – but locals have been advised many times that the Waiaua valley is not a priority – we are not in their “rivers scheme” – but we do pay rates for the 387 kilometres of other regional council stopbanks