Aotearoa Water Action (AWA) continues to push forward with its campaign to protect our human right to clean, abundant and affordable water, and to exercise community and national sovereignty over our most precious of resources.

Belfast

Our High Court hearing seeking to overturn the grant of consents to take and use water from deep aquifers beneath Christchurch was heard on 9 and 10 December 2019. The High Court decision released on 8 July 2020 unfortunately ruled in favour of Environment Canterbury's (ECan) water consent processes. That decision allowed ECan to change consents to take water for industrial purposes to consents to take the water for water bottling.

It also allowed Chinese-owned Cloud Ocean Water Ltd to keep bottling and exporting water from a fully allocated Christchurch aquifer. AWA Co-Convenor Peter Richardson says the group believes the case to be of high public, cultural and environmental importance, and that an appeal was necessary due to the great interest in water protection from the Christchurch public.

"We've had huge support in taking this case to court, from the public and Christchurch City Council. This indicates the significant concerns people have over the issue. We believe this recent High Court decision has significant negative implications for access to water generally in New Zealand, and we don't believe the right decision has been made in terms of the law".

"We don't believe communities and iwi should be having to fund the fight to save our water but until the Government listens to our concerns it is up to us to protect our water. It's an issue that is too important to ignore because this High Court decision affects Māori rights and the water sovereignty of our whole country. Other parts of New Zealand are already experiencing water shortages. We need to make sure we are honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and protecting our water for future generations".

Richardson says AWA has sought legal advice and that there is a strong case to be heard in the Court of Appeal. A Notice of Appeal was filed in August giving us three months to apply to have the Appeal set down for hearing, otherwise it would be deemed abandoned. Effectively, this was our fundraising window. AWA has some funds available from past campaigns but unfortunately not enough.

So, we launched a Pledge Me campaign: Operation "Stop The Bottling!"" to raise the shortfall of funds so we can continue the battle to overturn this decision. We hoped to raise at least $55,000 to help us cover our legal costs. We have paid the security for costs necessary for AWA to proceed with the appeal in the Court of Appeal, meaning that our legal team was able to file the Case on Appeal. We anticipate that the Court of Appeal hearing will be held in April 2021.

Otakiri Springs

AWA supported local community group Sustainable Otakiri Limited, which submitted in the Environment Court opposing the massive expansion of an existing water bottling operation on rural land near Whakatane. The sale of the land to Chinese-owned Cresswell NZ Limited was brokered by Government agency NZ Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), and may well have been part-financed by New Zealand government funding streams. Overseas Investment Office consent was given, and the legal advice as to whether the responsible Ministers were entitled to refuse consent was subsequently withheld from AWA. A complaint to the Ombudsman was not upheld.

The Environment Court decided in a majority decision to grant the consents. Commissioner Kernahan, however, issued a dissenting decision, based on the environmental effects of the production of millions of plastic bottles annually, and on the grounds that the activity should have been dealt with as an industrial rather than as a rural processing activity, and thus assessed more restrictively.

Sustainable Otakiri Limited subsequently raised $40,000 by way of public crowd-funding, to enable them to appeal the Environment Court decision which was heard in the Rotorua High Court in August 2020 where Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, alongside Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Pikiao and Sustainable Ōtakiri presented their arguments. The lawyers representing Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Pikiao and Sustainable Ōtakiri spoke on kaitiakitanga, te mauri o te wai, rangatiratanga, Te Tiriti principals/obligations, rural vs industrial zoning and environmental impacts such as plastic waste. The Court has reserved its decision.

Water Bottling Moratorium

AWA has continued to push for a moratorium on water bottling at local levels and had a breakthrough in June 2020 when the Queenstown-Lakes District Council unanimously agreed to put forward a remit on water bottling to the Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) Annual General Meeting. Tauranga City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Upper Hutt, Thames-Coromandel and Waitaki Councils lent their support. The remit proposed that LGNZ work with Government to implement a moratorium on new applications to bottle and export New Zealand's water. LGNZ accepted the remit and AWA actively lobbied all local and regional councils in New Zealand to support this remit.

On 21 August the vast majority of Councils at the LGNZ AGM voted in favour of the remit which was agreed as follows:

• Place a moratorium on applications to take and/or use water for water bottling or bulk export.
  The remit was passed with 76% support of the sector.
• Enable regional councils and unitary authorities to review inactive water bottling consents, with a view to withdrawal of the consent and discourage consent "banking".
  The remit was passed with 86% support of the sector.
• Undertake a holistic assessment of the potential effects of the current industry, its future growth and the legislative settings that enable councils to effectively manage those effects.
  The remit was passed with 92% support of the sector.
• Initiate a comprehensive nationwide discussion on the issue of water bottling (within the wider basis of water use) and implement any changes to the legislation and policy settings as required.
  The remit was passed with 89% support of the sector.

Aotearoa Water Action spokesperson Niki Gladding said the group is thrilled. She said that AWA has consistently maintained that the Government's proposed levy on water bottling is not the solution to managing the effects of the industry and may in fact create a revenue stream to support the granting of new consents.

"We'd like to acknowledge the work of Queenstown Lakes District Council in putting this remit forward - they have enabled a huge step in the right direction. The result shows elected representatives are becoming aware of the effects of the industry. It also shows the importance of maintaining a strong local democracy and we applaud all the councils and councillors who supported the remit. We hope central Government and MPs will now start to hear their communities as well".

LGNZ Remit Commentary On Overseas Interests

1. Since 2013, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) has invested in eight water bottling companies through its Focus 700 Group programme, to support the growth of water exports. Although NZTE no longer encourages the sale of NZ's water, it does facilitate the sale of land for the holders of water permits. It is worth noting that certain provisions of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) make it unclear whether NZ drinking water suppliers can be prioritised to ensure NZ communities will always have access to affordable clean drinking water.
2. Under the Overseas Investment Act (OIA), foreign investment in NZ's water cannot be managed effectively as water is not defined as a "sensitive" asset. Treasury has confirmed that our existing free trade agreements do not allow the creation of new classes of sensitive assets. Therefore, foreign investment in water bottling can only be limited where the water is to be extracted from sensitive land and only if the "good character" or "benefit to NZ" tests are not met.
3. In 2018 Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Minister Eugenie Sage was unable to decline Cresswell NZ's application to purchase of sensitive land for a water bottling plant. She stated that the provisions of the Overseas Investment Act prevented her declining the application. Subsequently, the Government has proposed amendments to the OIA that (if enacted) will allow applications involving the extraction of water for bottling to be declined if they are likely to result in a negative impact on water quality or sustainability. (Note: These provisions only apply to land deemed sensitive under the OIA. Much land with water permits will not be subject to the provisions).

Three Waters Reform

Another concern of AWA's is the shape that the Government's Three Waters Reform proposal might eventually take. At this stage it appears that central Government wants to set up a small number of entities to manage New Zealand's water supply and waste water networks (currently owned and managed by local councils). Councils around the country are now in the final stages of providing the Government with data on their Three Waters networks - data that will help to shape the Government's proposal.

Our understanding is that the greater the funding needed to bring the country's networks up to scratch the greater the need will be to keep the assets off councils' books and the more limited local government control will be. This is because of the statutory debt limits imposed on local government; one of the key reasons for the reforms is the need to access more capital than can currently be raised by territorial authorities. The other reason is the assumed benefits of economies of scale - based on the assumption that much larger tenders for much larger projects of work will result in savings.

One of the Government's bottom lines is that the assets will remain in public hands. However, AWA is concerned that once these assets are at arms-length from elected representatives and are no longer subject to the provisions of the Local Government Act, it will be much easier to change the law to enable share sales to raise capital. And if that were to happen, foreign ownership of our water assets is a possibility. Another concern we have is that many smaller councils may cease to exist and that the strength of local government in this country could be diminished. There is more information on the Three Waters Reform program on the Department of Internal Affairs Website.

Finally, AWA would like to thank and acknowledge CAFCA for its support in our campaigns. We share a very similar kaupapa, albeit AWA's is more narrowly focussed on the water issue. Many lines intersect on the water debate - resource security, sovereignty and the prevailing, destructive economic paradigm of endless growth for the benefit of the few.