Te Wai Ora o Tāne Integrated Water Strategy

Water supply, wastewater, stormwater, surface water and groundwater form a fundamental part of the life of the community. Christchurch City Council has a responsibility to ensure that its water services, infrastructure and water taonga are managed in a manner that supports the environmental, social, cultural and economic wellbeing of current and future generations.

In this regard, we work with Environment Canterbury, which has responsibilities for environmental resources management. The broader legislative and policy context is described in Appendix A. 

The vision recognises the importance of water, as taonga, to the life of the community of Ōtautahi Christchurch, while also recognising the significant cultural values associated with water. Achieving the vision will mean that Christchurch’s water resources and taonga are managed in an integrated way to provide people, communities and future generations with access to safe and sufficient water resources, maintain the integrity of freshwater ecosystems and manage hazards from flooding and sea-level rise.

An Integrated Water Strategy will both recognise and support the ongoing recovery activities following the earthquakes and set a path for our future management of our water resources and water services and associated infrastructure.

It will establish the strategic direction for our sustainable long-term management of water resources and related infrastructure. The strategy focuses on water supply, wastewater and surface water including stormwater and flood management.

Principles that have guided the development of the strategy are: integration, longevity, touchstone, placemaking, flood management, international best practice, efficiency and kaitiakitanga.

Urban Water Principles

The strategy recognises and incorporates the Urban Water Principles – Ngā Wai Manga recommended by central government’s Urban Water Working Group:

• Papatūānuku – Our relationship with the land – papatūānuku – will predetermine our relationship with water
• Ngā wai tuku kiri – Our waters are a gift of life provided to us by our tupuna
• Tāngata – Our environments are places of human occupation
• Te hāpori me te wai – The community’s love and care for water is enduring
• Tiakina mō apōpō – In building future resilience, our connectedness with the environment is our strength

Key strategic issues

This strategy addresses eleven key strategic issues, relating to managing wastewater discharges, ensuring long term water supply, responding to stormwater management, flooding, and potential sea-level rise issues, improving water quality and waterway health, and ensuring that the community values its many different types of water resources

1. Different perceptions of the ‘value’ of the waters
2. Poor state of some waterbodies
3. Vulnerability of Christchurch’s groundwater source to contamination
4. Wastewater overflows and effects on surface water
5. Treated wastewater discharges into Akaroa Harbour
6. Stormwater discharges and effects on surface water
7. Flooding and flood management
8. Responding/adapting to the anticipated effects of sea-level rise on water resources and related infrastructure
9. Long term availability of water for water supply
10. Long term sustainable wastewater treatment and disposal
11. Infrastructure efficiency and resilience

To address these strategic issues, the strategy contains four goals, 11 objectives and some suggested approaches to achieve the vision. The goals align with the 2018–28 Community Outcomes, as well as the ‘strategic priorities’, identified in our Strategic Framework.

In summary, the goals and general approach to achieving each of the goals of the strategy is as follows.

Goal 1: The multiple uses of water are valued by all for the benefit of all

• Increasing awareness – to encourage and engage the community to value and respect the multiple uses of our water resources through advocacy and outreach programmes, demonstration projects that highlight the values of water, and considering the water services charging structure and the way information is conveyed to the community.
• Enhancing natural and cultural values (including ecology, amenity, recreation, heritage and landscape) through initiatives such as demonstration projects, protection of existing waterway and wetland systems, encouraging and facilitating wetlands, waterbodies enhancement and naturalisation, addressing stream depletion, facilitating the adoption of water sensitive design and promoting water conservation.

Goal 2: Water quality and ecosystems are protected and enhanced

• Improving water quality and enhancing the natural, cultural and ecological values of waterbodies – through continuing the existing Stormwater Management Plan approach to management of stormwater quality, increasing focus on sediment control measures, implementing source control and water sensitive design, wetlands and waterbodies enhancement and naturalisation, and where possible retrofitting water quality mitigation for existing developed areas.
• Reducing the effects of wastewater overflows – by network upgrades, targeting efforts to address overflows and reducing inflow and infiltration.
• Protecting groundwater sources and their vulnerability to contamination – through targeted investigations, further implementation of source protection, and restrictions on excavation below groundwater level.
• Recognising the importance of robust data management and modelling to demonstrate performance.
• The Council remains committed to providing drinking water that is safe and community health remains our top priority and Council is adamant that it can achieve this objective without residual disinfection (e.g. chlorination).
• The strategy makes clear that we will be unwavering in our advocacy and actions to minimise nitrate incursion (and other contaminants) into ground water sources used for our drinking water supply. The city will do all it can to protect its aquifers.

Goal 3: The effects of flooding, climate change and sea-level rise are understood, and the community is assisted to adapt to them

• Understanding the extent, effect and risk of flooding, and managing effects and adapting to flooding risks – by continuing the existing programme of investigations and physical works in the interim, while developing, communicating to the community and then implementing a risk based approach to managing the effects of flooding using options appropriate to specific situations.
• Understanding risks due to sea level rise and consequences resulting from climate change, and developing an adaptive response.

Goal 4: Water is managed in a sustainable and integrated way in line with the principle of kaitiakitanga

• Managing assets across all of the Council’s activities (such as roading; water supply, wastewater and stormwater operations; parks; etc.) in an integrated manner to maximise attributes such as placemaking, collaborative benefits, eco-system service harmonies which may not be realised when assets are developed in isolation for a single discipline.
• Managing stormwater collectively wherever practicable in order to maximise efficiency, cost-effectiveness and ease of maintenance. Encouraging on-site stormwater management using water sensitive design where collective stormwater management is not feasible (such as areas where urban intensification and redevelopment of industrial and business land is prevalent).
• Managing wastewater systems to meet community needs – including through reviewing and revising trade waste and biosolids management and developing long term solutions for Christchurch’s future growth and for the disposal of treated wastewater from the Akaroa Harbour communities.
• Managing water sources to meet reasonable demands by improving understanding of water sources and water use, implementing demand management projects and securing access to water supplies.
• Infrastructure efficiency and resilience – by utilising a risk-based approach, proactive monitoring, and the implementation of intelligent technology.
• Managing resources collaboratively. Water resources management is complex and requires collaborative integrated work programme across Council units and between stakeholders.
• To avoid misunderstanding our integrated water strategy means not only that our water services are integrated but that safe sustainable water is embodied in everything the Council does. Because we consider water to be so precious and highly significant to the people of Christchurch, we want it to be controlled by the people of Christchurch so water services can also integrate with parks, roads and other community functions. We will accordingly be strongly opposed to any moves to try to create a special function water authority that separates any water functions from the City Council.

To guide actions to meet the goals and vision of the strategy eleven objectives have been identified. These are not listed in any order of priority. 

A suite of approaches to support the objectives and goals are put forward and are listed below.A suite of approaches to support the objectives and goals are put forward and are listed below.