Oral Question - Dairying and Water Quality

Nandor Tanczos: Is the Minister concerned that the growth of irrigated dairy farming in Canterbury is posing a risk to water quality and to public health, in light of the warning from the Canterbury medical officer of health about the potential for significant health effects from the proposed Central Plains Water irrigation scheme to irrigate 60,000 hectares of farmland in Canterbury?

Hon PETE HODGSON: There are many causes of poor quality, or insufficient quality, in New Zealand's drinking-water — dairying being amongst them, but by no means the only one. New Zealanders enjoy good drinking-water standards in cities and often nowhere near good enough standards out in the countryside. We have a lot of waterborne illnesses as a result of that.

Nandor Tanczos: In that case, can the Minister tell the House what he makes of a report from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research that proves a link between intensive dairying and drinking-water contamination by campylobacter, cryptosporidium, and E. coli; and is that the result of a 4-year Government sustainable water programme of inaction?

Hon PETE HODGSON: I am not sure where the member is coming from. I thought we were on roughly the same page, with the only difference being that I thought not all substandard water was due to dairying, and some of it was due to other causes.