Environment Canterbury has summarised the water management recommendations made by Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS) zone committees to date.

The summary will give zone committees and members of the public a simple and clear reflection of the recommendations and how they align with the CWMS.

The report summarises the recommendations made by the seven zone committees that had finalised their Zone Implementation Programmes (ZIP) for water management prior to October 2012.

The report also summarises the Regional Committee’s Regional Implementation Programme (RIP) which identifies priority areas that need to be addressed at a regional level to meet the targets in the CWMS. 

The summary report includes examples from the seven ZIPs and RIP – they are indicative only and not fully inclusive of all recommendations included.

Recommendations have been summarised according to the most common themes identified in the ZIPs and RIP.

Click here for a copy of the report.

These issues include the declining quality of both surface water and groundwater, an ongoing loss of cultural value and recreational opportunities, as well as the declining availability and reliability of water for agricultural and energy users.

The CWMS establishes a collaborative framework for sustainably addressing these issues to enable present and future generations to gain the greatest social, economic, recreational and cultural benefits from Canterbury’s water resources within a sustainable framework.

The CWMS provided for the creation of ten zone committees and a regional committee tasked with working with the community to develop recommendations to deliver the goals and targets outlined in the Strategy.

Implementation Programmes are non-statutory documents that are being completed by each of the ten CWMS committees within the Canterbury region.

Each Implementation Programme contains zone-specific recommendations for water management to achieve the CWMS targets.

Zone Committees have worked with stakeholders and the community to develop the recommendations. Public and stakeholder feedback meetings were held around each zone to get the views of locals on the recommendations being made.