Gillian Blythe: Water New Zealand CEO on the worsening state of water revealed in a new report

New research has highlighted an issue hidden beneath our feet. 

A Ministry for the Environment report shows E. coli has been detected in almost half of monitored groundwater sites since 2019. 

Nitrate levels have risen more than a third in the past two decades, and 63% of New Zealand's lakes had poor or very poor health. 

Water NZ CEO Gillian Blythe told Mike Hosking a critical piece of information highlighted by the report is that what we do with some water environments won’t show up for decades. 

She says that things they were doing in the early 2000s are only beginning to appear now, so they need to think about not just the day-to-day decisions, but also the impact on generations and the environment in the future.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of the nine hundred and ninety eight groundwater monitoring sites,
forty five percent. How the coal i above acceptable levels.
Nearly half of the river length is considered unsafe for swimming.
Jillian Blyth, there's the Water New Zealand Chief Executive in
as well. There's Jillian morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
There's no surprise here, is there?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
No? This is not a surprise. I think it's an
important wake up call though for all of us. Do
you reckon?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
It will be a wake up call every year for
years to come and we'll say the same thing over
and over again and nothing will happen.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I think now we've we've got with this report, it's
the best set of information that we've been able to
pick pull together that with this report, with ongoing monitoring,
we can all make better decisions.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
See how much information, how much of it's farming.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think we need to accept that it's actually everything
that all of us do. You can't you can look
at a particular sector, you can look at what the
what the drinking water, wastewater and stormwater contribution is, but
fundamentally all of us are making an impact. And I
think the critical thing that comes across in this report,
because it focuses on groundwater, is that what we do

(01:08):
today for some water environments will not actually show up
for decades, and so what we were doing in the
early two thousands is beginning to appear in the results now.
And I think that's when I think we need to
be able to think about not just what are day
to day decisions, but the impact on teach generations and

(01:30):
on the future environment.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
How much of it's about councils who would say it's
all infrastructure, we don't have the money, we never have
the money. How much of it's about that.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Absolutely that there has been contributing factors about what's the
quality of stormwater discharges into the environment, how many of
them have got consents. Some of it will absolutely be
around water wastewater overflows and discharges, or the amount of
drinking water that we abstract from the environment. All of
those are goaing contributing factors, and we absolutely need to

(02:02):
do the investment that's there. We need to also think
about not just about fixing the pipe, but making sure
that we're thinking about the nature based solutions. What are
we going to do, What are the wetlands that need
to be put in place, What are the you know,
some of the green roots, what are the you know
in some parts of the country. We need to make
sure that we're improving our water efficiency, you know, making

(02:26):
sure we're providing signals around to to you know, to
mum and dad around how much water are we consuming
within our houses? You know, as you know, right, we've
talked previously about the fact that you've got a meter
in Auckland and I don't have a meter in Wellington Group,
and so all of those things are an important part.

(02:47):
Just as you know, what what we've flushed down the toilet,
making sure it's the three p's, p per and paper only,
and that we're you know, we don't flush the medicines.
I mean, that's one of the things that comes across
here is that you can see that, you know, pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceuticals do not get removed at the wastewater treatment plant.
They just go through. And so you know, if you've

(03:08):
got old medicines that you are thinking that you need
to get rid of, please don't put them down the toilet,
just put them in the rubbishton.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Very good advice, Jillian. You have an excellent weekend. I
wish you were with your campaign, Jillian Blythe Who's the
Water to New Zealand Chief executive, Well, it's this morning.
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