Anyone seen the Aljazeera documentary on NZ rivers called 'Polluted Paradise'?

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amiga500

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#223042 9-Sep-2017 18:16

Interesting timing seeing it screen 10 days before the NZ election. It includes an interesting interview with Nick Smith where he demonstrates an amazing ability to answer truthfully, yet completely avoid the intent of the interviewer's question.

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#1861467 9-Sep-2017 18:36

Embedded links:

(sorry haven't viewed these yet - so not sure which one OP refers to wrt Nick Smith etc)

blakamin

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#1861473 9-Sep-2017 18:42

Watching now...

Damn :(

amiga500

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#1861552 9-Sep-2017 20:47

I think the interview with Nick Smith was in Part 2

JayADee

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#1861851 10-Sep-2017 14:05

Thanks for the imbedded links, Fred99.

mattwnz

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#1861933 10-Sep-2017 18:44

I really wish that NZ showed this on TVNZ. This is the sort of documentary that NZ used to produce and screen on TV. There is a lack of this type of investigative reporting in NZ. There is still some, but it has been pushed to the fringes.

robjg63

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#1861940 10-Sep-2017 19:17

Someone should flick stuff and nzherald an email.
It's about time someone exposed the truth about our ' clean green' image. We seem happy to ignore the problem and have a government that thinks it can make rivers clean by changing legal definitions of toxicity.

The blowtorch of external scrutiny might be a (much needed) overdue wakeup call.

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sbiddle

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#1861941 10-Sep-2017 19:21

robjg63: Someone should flick stuff and nzherald an email.

No need. They both mentioned it weeks ago.

tdgeek

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#1861946 10-Sep-2017 19:38

amiga500:

Interesting timing seeing it screen 10 days before the NZ election. It includes an interesting interview with Nick Smith where he demonstrates an amazing ability to answer truthfully, yet completely avoid the intent of the interviewer's question.

He must be a politician???

Rikkitic

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#1861979 10-Sep-2017 21:12

I finally got around to seeing this. I actually lived through all the things in Hawke's Bay that they talk about. I think the documentary did a pretty good job of reporting what happened. The dam is now definitively dead as far as the council and public money are concerned, although they have left an opening for private capital to pick it up again, but that is very unlikely. It is to be hoped that this episode marks a turning point and a re-evaluation of intensified dairying and other environmentally destructive practices.

Having seen this documentary has given me the added nudge I needed to vote Green in this election. Now I want them to survive more than ever. We really do need their voice. Hopefully a Labour/Green/Maori government will finally get serious about environmental protection. I don't give a damn how many taxes they add as long as they achieve that. I don't think National or its supporters do not have the country's best interests at heart, but I do think their priorities are wrong. Intensified dairying is not the answer. We need a better vision.

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#1862026 11-Sep-2017 00:57

It would be interesting to see how European nations manage to have dairying and clean(er) rivers.

I used to work for one of the large water and sewage companies in the UK and I recall one of the engineers saying that they could actually take the discharge water from the sewage plant and use it as intake water for the water treatment plant, but the public perception would be that they could not, so they discharged the sewage plant water into the river and sucked it out a mile or two downstream to treat and put into supply.

I suspect that part of the NZ problem is the fact that there is no national water system and no national rivers protection authority. With every council paddling it's own canoe as far as water etc goes it is not really a recipe for the application of universal standards and methods across NZ.

GeekGuy

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#1862048 11-Sep-2017 08:03

I use to go fishing for kawhai where the Ngaruroro River & Tukituki River met the ocean at Awatoto and Haumoana 30 years ago..

I dont think I could ever do that again.

Last time I looked at the Karamu Stream at Clive I was disgusted on how bad it looked.

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Fred99

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#1862514 11-Sep-2017 20:10

Geektastic:

It would be interesting to see how European nations manage to have dairying and clean(er) rivers.

I used to work for one of the large water and sewage companies in the UK and I recall one of the engineers saying that they could actually take the discharge water from the sewage plant and use it as intake water for the water treatment plant, but the public perception would be that they could not, so they discharged the sewage plant water into the river and sucked it out a mile or two downstream to treat and put into supply.

I suspect that part of the NZ problem is the fact that there is no national water system and no national rivers protection authority. With every council paddling it's own canoe as far as water etc goes it is not really a recipe for the application of universal standards and methods across NZ.

Not sure if part of the answer is that last time I was in Europe, farmers seemed to be able to do okay with a very small herd of cows, perhaps 50 or so, grazing on pasture in summer, in sheds in winter. It was a very different picture than the old "family farm" here. That farm is now one owner, 2400 cows, extremely industrial, Filipino workers because kiwis are "too lazy" apparently to want to work 60-80 hours for only 40 hours minimum wage. Actually, that level of intensification would one have been a good income and lifestyle to support about 20 NZ farming families, sharemilkers or small lot farmers.

I shudder. Not sure what NZ can do - we need the money, apparently, the European farmer is heavily subsidised - and they are our competition.

CodeSourcerer

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#1862569 12-Sep-2017 01:11

After a quick bit of inspect element, here's the links that Al Jazeera have embedded here

Part one

Part two

MikeB4

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#1862600 12-Sep-2017 06:59

@Wiggum following some of your posts in other threads ou may find these videos interesting and informative

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

MikeB4

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#1862605 12-Sep-2017 07:43

Geektastic:
It would be interesting to see how European nations manage to have dairying and clean(er) rivers.

I used to work for one of the large water and sewage companies in the UK and I recall one of the engineers saying that they could actually take the discharge water from the sewage plant and use it as intake water for the water treatment plant, but the public perception would be that they could not, so they discharged the sewage plant water into the river and sucked it out a mile or two downstream to treat and put into supply.

I suspect that part of the NZ problem is the fact that there is no national water system and no national rivers protection authority. With every council paddling it's own canoe as far as water etc goes it is not really a recipe for the application of universal standards and methods across NZ.

It does not take much research to reveal that the UK and Europe is not better if not worse.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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