Pillaging the Rakaia

National's dictatorship in Canterbury has delivered for its cronies again, amending the Rakaia River Water Conservation Order to allow Lake Coleridge to be drained for irrigation. While the government is spinning this as having no effect on the river, the reality is rather different. According to Trustpower it will roughly double the number of days the Rakaia is below its minimum flow. But a bunch of farmers will be able to use that water for private profit, without paying a cent for it (except, I suppose, in donations to the National Party who gave them this gift). Meanwhile, those downstream will pay with less (and dirtier) water, and (ironically) a greater risk of flooding at the river's mouth.

This is what the dictatorship is for: to allow the pillaging of Canterbury's most valuable natural resource, its water, for the private profit of a few, with the costs dumped on the many. We should not tolerate it. And when democracy is finally restored in Canterbury, we should reverse it and force the farmers to pay for the water they use.