Huge crowd at water protest in Christchurch - Protesting billions of litres being shipped overseas

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#2194970 10-Mar-2019 11:22

You have collected logically and widely as I have. Well done.

Unfortunately general public lump it together to, 'China moved in. Stealing our water for gain. Means we have to have restrictions while they still can. Protest!'

They even jumped on the council for watering grounds out of hours while everyone is restricted.

Nevermind the technical details like it comes from onsite storage or a lower level non drinking tapped bore only 30m down etc. Details don't matter when you can make opinions based on an image and a tagline right.

Don't quote me, but think when you drill into the figures of those articles and compare the usage oceans reported usage was like .2% of greater Canterbury industrial annual consumption

afe66

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#2194982 10-Mar-2019 11:36

When I lived in chch one of the things which used to annoy me _greatly_ was when we were on water restrictions, I used to drive south past huge water sprinklers throwing thousands of litres of water in the air over farmland in a huge NW gale where the tempertures were 28c+...

Jase2985

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#2195000 10-Mar-2019 11:53

afe66:

When I lived in chch one of the things which used to annoy me _greatly_ was when we were on water restrictions, I used to drive south past huge water sprinklers throwing thousands of litres of water in the air over farmland in a huge NW gale where the tempertures were 28c+...

why? they get their water from a different source than where chch gets its drinking water, they also have restrictions on how much they can draw from the rivers

Oblivian

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#2195005 10-Mar-2019 12:13

Found one of the sources. m3 to L conversion needed when the talk permission volumes.

Christchurch draws groundwater from 150 bores throughout the city. In the year to June 1999 the city used 50.5 million m3 of groundwater: 57% for residential use, 21% for commercial and industrial uses, 17% unaccounted for, and 5% for public use. In addition to the City Council abstractions, private irrigators around the city took 36 million m3 and industries 14 million m3.

Geektastic

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#2195024 10-Mar-2019 12:22

I just don't see the issue. NZ is virtually drowning in water. The West coast is almost permanently soaking every time I go there and every time I cross a river I see thousands of cubic metres of water a minute destined to do nothing but end up in the sea.

The rest of the world manages to bottle and sell water very very successfully. It represents an enormous opportunity for foreign exchange earnings.

I can (vaguely) understand the parochialism that gets expressed when 'foreigners' are the ones with the gumption to see the opportunity but that is better dealt with by Kiwis seizing the day and doing it themselves. In glass bottles if that makes you feel better. There is opportunity for employment, tax revenue and environmental improvement if done correctly.

The desire to just shut down every single opportunity to make use of our natural resources is just going to doom the country to poverty instead of success and wealth.

surfisup1000

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#2195026 10-Mar-2019 12:27

mentalinc: Agree it's 100% wrong, our water just shouldn't be sold overseas full stop What annoys me most is the headlines are China this or that, makes it seem xenophobic, but the issue is we're giving away the resource WWIII is most likely going to be over. NZ water should just not be for sale.

Why not? it falls from the sky, if someone wants to bottle it and send it to china then good on them.

surfisup1000

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#2195031 10-Mar-2019 12:28

tehgerbil:

ECAN/CCC have completely poo'd the bed on this one and the ratepayers are being used as pawns while ECAN protects Chinese interests..

Please feel free to correct me if I have made any mistakes. :)

People wouldn't care if it were aussies, or english, or americans bottling it.

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surfisup1000

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#2195033 10-Mar-2019 12:32

Geektastic:

I just don't see the issue. NZ is virtually drowning in water. The West coast is almost permanently soaking every time I go there and every time I cross a river I see thousands of cubic metres of water a minute destined to do nothing but end up in the sea.

Correct.

People instinctively think they should be against it, but can't figure out why. I think the reasons are xenophobic and envy, but people subconsciously disguise those reasons as 'water shortages' .

gzt

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#2195042 10-Mar-2019 13:23

gzt:
Jase2985:
MikeB4:

It is disgraceful when Kiwis are being asked to conserve water over summer and these companies continue to take what the please.

better question to ask it why you are being asked that

is it because there is no/little water?

or is it because infrastructure cant keep up with the demand?

i wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter

Residential water metering is voluntary in Wellington.

You can just about guarantee 20% of the users are 80% of the problem.

Usage dropped 25% when metering was implemented in Kapiti Coast council area.

I'm going to walk this back a bit. In general I agree it's an infrastructure problem. Metering may be part of the solution it's not going to solve the supply problem and use of an underpriced resource.

Wellington can be like Auckland and send tendrils out to suck up water from everywhere else or it can be a whole lot smarter.

In large part I'd prefer to see investment in smarter water infrastructure over investment in metering in some areas.

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#2195045 10-Mar-2019 13:26

surfisup1000:
Geektastic:

I just don't see the issue. NZ is virtually drowning in water. The West coast is almost permanently soaking every time I go there and every time I cross a river I see thousands of cubic metres of water a minute destined to do nothing but end up in the sea.

Correct.

People instinctively think they should be against it, but can't figure out why. I think the reasons are xenophobic and envy, but people subconsciously disguise those reasons as 'water shortages' .

Bottled water is environmentally unfriendly. Discuss.

surfisup1000

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#2195096 10-Mar-2019 14:58

irongarment:

Bottled water is environmentally unfriendly. Discuss.

It seems to me you are going off topic. Could you elucidate on how this is relevant?

My understanding is that they are protesting against a chinese firm being allowed to use water without paying for it.

Geektastic

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#2195097 10-Mar-2019 15:06

irongarment:
surfisup1000:

Geektastic:

I just don't see the issue. NZ is virtually drowning in water. The West coast is almost permanently soaking every time I go there and every time I cross a river I see thousands of cubic metres of water a minute destined to do nothing but end up in the sea.

Correct.

People instinctively think they should be against it, but can't figure out why. I think the reasons are xenophobic and envy, but people subconsciously disguise those reasons as 'water shortages' .

Bottled water is environmentally unfriendly. Discuss.

It isn't. Why would it be? What improves the environment allowing the water to flow into the sea as opposed to into bottles you can sell?

Environment stuff is fine, but you can't spend it and the reality is NZ needs foreign earnings. Provided the bottling is done with sensible practice applied, it's no worse than Evian, San Pellegrino, Perrier and a myriad of others around the world.

irongarment

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#2195165 10-Mar-2019 17:13

Evian, San Pellegrino, Perrier, and other bottled water companies are environmentally unfriendly. Discuss.

Ge0rge

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#2195171 10-Mar-2019 17:35

Geektastic:
What improves the environment allowing the water to flow into the sea as opposed to into bottles you can sell?

One thousand less plastic bottles per cumec?

Mark

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#2195197 10-Mar-2019 18:34

surfisup1000:

Geektastic:

I just don't see the issue. NZ is virtually drowning in water. The West coast is almost permanently soaking every time I go there and every time I cross a river I see thousands of cubic metres of water a minute destined to do nothing but end up in the sea.

Correct.

People instinctively think they should be against it, but can't figure out why. I think the reasons are xenophobic and envy, but people subconsciously disguise those reasons as 'water shortages' .

Lots of area might be drowning in water, but where I am isn't during summer. It grates when you have a bore that the council can put a seal on when things get dry, yet the billionaires club golf course to the south and the overseas owned water bottling plant to the north don't get any restrictions put on them. This year council locked a lot of bores which even prevented the water tankers being able to fill up and deliver water to people.

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