Freshwater

A cross-sector group says successive governments' inaction on degraded waterways has spurred them to come together to forge a new plan. Audio

A lucrative water consent attached to a former wool-scouring plant in Christchurch has been bought by a group of Chinese investors.

A major West Coast water export project has been approved despite opposition from water rights campaigners.

Farmers still have a long way to go to meet some water clean-up targets, but the work done so far should be acknowledged, Dairy NZ says.

The government's plan to make New Zealand's rivers more swimmable is not tougher than the old standards, according to an official report.

A minister's remark that the intensification of dairy farming can't go on is decades too late, says ecologist Mike Joy.

New Zealand cannot afford to wait to address problems with fresh water, the head of the Ministry for the Environment says. Audio

Nitrogen levels have got worse in more than half the rivers monitored by environment officials, the government's first dedicated freshwater report shows.

The controversial 'spray and pray' farming method, being blamed for contaminating waterways in Rangitikei, is being used in Southland.

Water flow demands by Otago Regional Council would dry up an iconic river in the Maniototo every summer, a group of local farmers says.

Farmers fear they will be left high and dry as Otago's 150-year-old water licence system expires, reports Ian Telfer for Insight. Audio

Water Fools? - An ancient proverb emphasises the Whanganui River's sacred flow from the mountain to the sea, but it is now being diverted for electricity.

As Queenstown and Wanaka's populations explode, RNZ series Water Fools? finds it's a race against time to protect the pristine Southern Lakes from urban runoff.

Hopes are high that injecting fresh water back into the ground will reduce dairy farms' impact, but RNZ series Water Fools? finds not everyone's convinced.

Green groups are outraged at a plan to spend ratepayer money on a fence that would allow iconic high country land to be more intensively farmed.

A new intensive farming practice in the Rangitikei known as spray and pray is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, according to Fish and Game.

Details of two more water bottling permits in the region have emerged, but the council says it does not believe any bottling is actually taking place.

The government is "kicking the can down the road" on taxing water, and bottling companies should be paying a levy to regional councils, Labour leader Andrew Little says. Video