Our Land and Water Podcast Episode 1: How bad is our water quality, really?

For the past eight years, Our Land and Water has funded research with the goal of improving the health of our rivers and lakes here in Aotearoa. To do that, we needed more information about the state of our waterways. We determined which of our catchments are most vulnerable to contamination and why, what their pressures are, and where pressure can be removed through better farm management.

The challenge to improve our freshwater is bigger and more complicated than we thought in 2016. We know a lot more about how bad things, are and will get under climate change. In this episode, we’ll hear about the size of the gap between the current state of our freshwater and our expectations.

Speakers: Rich McDowell (AgResearch/Lincoln University), Ton Snelder (LWP)

More information:

• Research Findings Brief: Current state of water contaminants compared to bottom lines
• How Far Have We Come?
• What Has Worked and What needs to Change?
• Where Land-Use Change is Needed – A Deeper Dive
• Practical Tools and Approaches to Begin Navigating Land-Use Change