March 31, 2015
Kahungunu protects womb of Papatuanuku
The chair of Ngati Kahungunu Inc says a landmark court decision against Hawkes Bay Regional Council was a victory for the Maori view of the environment.
The Environment Court has ruled the council was shirking its obligation to enhance water quality by controlling land use, and declared illegal its "unders and overs" policy of allowing some waterways to decline in quality if other waterways improved.
Ngahiwi Tomoana says the council had been seeking to give itself a licence to pollute, and the court has knocked them back.
He says Ngati Kahungunu doesn't accept the council's contention that the inevitable cost of economic development was degrading groundwater.
"We argued that the waterways and in this case the aquifers were the womb of Papatuanuku and if you are going to pollute the womb of Papatuanuku, if you use the metaphor of a pregnant woman, you are asking the woman and the new baby to be born in substandard water and the placenta or the whenua would not have the cleansing role it does if you take on the Hawkes Bay Regional Council's logic," Mr Tomoana says.
He says the council has been lazy and failed to explore or promote innovation and the transition to more environmentally sound farming practices.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH NGAHIWI TOMOANA CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=Mjc3NDA=
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