Water: quality and ownership / W.F. Benfield.

"New Zealand is fortunate in having a high quality water resource. It has fuelled an agricultural revolution where production has taken precedence over management of resources. In a world where clean water is becoming a scarce resource, we must protect ours for a nation's future wellbeing. That is why urgent steps must be taken to address the issue of pollution of water by agricultural contamination and urban waste. On top of all this is the loss of river margins through "accretion" claims that add public land to farms. The demand that rivers be fenced off and their margins be planted as a token gesture to public opinion has not stopped their continued degradation, as well as cutting access off to the public. The book also covers claims to "ownership" of New Zealand's waters - from the bottling companies that take water from aquifers to make fortunes selling it overseas to demands by the Iwi Leaders Group to take ownership of a natural resource that falls from the sky. Our own government has been party to the pillaging of a nation's bounty by sacking councillors of a major regional council and appointing compliant com-missioners in their place. It has changed standards to permit downgraded water to be deemed acceptable for human use. The people of New Zealand are losing not only the quality of their once pristine rivers but also the ownership of the water to hungry predators. These issues have to be addressed and this book is an important step in that direction. "--Back cover.