Should we be able to swim in our rivers?

Water quality has been in the news a lot this year – in particular the Impact of dairy effluent on rivers in New Zealand.

But if we want to swim in our rivers we have to deal with other issues as well – such as bacteria.

Around a quarter of our monitored rivers aren’t fit for swimming because you might swallow something nasty. Some rural drinking water supplies are also affected.

This problem is caused by poo in our rivers, and in this case dairy farming (usually) isn’t the main problem.

Sheep and beef farms don’t have to fence their waterways, so their animals can still legally poop in our rivers. And only half of rural and provincial sewage schemes meet their resource consent conditions.

If we want to swim in our rivers, we have to stop dumping our shit in them. Literally.

Embed Is New Zealand Heading up Shit Creek? Water Pollution in New Zealand on Your Site: Copy and Paste the Code Below

<br /><br /><br /><br /> <img src=”http://garethsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/infographic_river_pollution_new_zealand.gif” width=”540″></p><br /><br /><br /> <p>Is New Zealand Heading up Shit Creek? Water Pollution in New Zealand – An infographic by the team at <a href=”http://garethsworld.com/blog/environment/new-zealand-heading-up-shit-creek-infographic”>Is New Zealand Heading up Shit Creek?</a></p><br /><br /><br /> <p>

About the Author

Gareth Morgan

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Gareth Morgan is a New Zealand economist and commentator on public policy who in previous lives has been in business as an economic consultant, funds manager, and professional company director. He is also a motorcycle adventurer and philanthropist. Gareth and his wife Joanne have a charitable foundation, the Morgan Foundation, which has three main stands of philanthropic endeavour – public interest research, conservation and social investment.