Swimmable rivers has to be a priority

​Today, I was pruning some of the fruit trees in the Parihaka riparian food forest. Over the last eight years, we have planted several hundred fruit trees, berry bushes, natives and other support trees along the Waitotoroa. And 99% of the trees got through the massive flood over Waitangi weekend this year and held and stabilised the bank. The Waitotoroa catchment has had over 30 discharge permits from the dairy industry. We all know that Taranaki's rivers, creeks and wetlands are really struggling. For too long, the impacts of agriculture have meant that our kids have not been able to swim in many rivers around the mountain. We need to work together to bring about change to farming practices to ensure that all waterways are protected to the highest standard. 76% of indigenous freshwater fish species (39 of 51) are currently threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened. Clean rivers ensure that we can turn this statistic around.