TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1970. Water Resources And Conservation

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 16

TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1970. Water Resources And Conservation

The plea by Professor G. A. Knox, of the University of Canterbury, for a national water research laboratory deserves dose consideration; and the physical environment committee of the National Development Conference might be the most appropriate body for the task, at least initially. As Professor Knox said, the Pollution Advisory Council set up in 1953 has played a valuable role; but much more detailed work, beyond the resources of the council, appears to be necessary. Professor Knox, an eminent zoologist, emphasised that water pollution is more than a health problem, and an important one; it is a biological problem concerning ecology, conservation, scenic attractiveness, and health. Every schoolboy knows of the situation described by Coleridge in which there was “water, water, “ everywhere, nor any drop to drink ”. It is tempting to believe that the poet had a prevision of pollution when he added that “slimy things did crawl with “legs upon that slimy sea”. The vision is now very close to being realised; and many countries are showing their awareness of the dangers. New Zealand is fortunate in Having bountiful water supplies; it still has no clear conception of the need to learn how to use them and conserve them. It remains to be seen how a water research foundation might best be set up and financed. Urban water supply systems in New Zealand use about 200 million gallons of water a day. About the same amount is used by industries, including at least 40 million gallons a day by the pulp and paper industry and 50 million gallons a day by the meat industry at the height of the season. All this water is discharged as waste which is to some extent contaminated; only a fraction of it is treated before being returned to rivers or the sea.

These major users should not alone be asked to pay for a laboratory which would examine the quality, and causes of contamination, of lakes, rivers, and coastal waters throughout the country, and suggest how contamination might be overcome. The effects of activities such as aerial top-dressing on farms, of holiday-makers at beaches and picnic areas, and of animals in more remote areas are largely unknown. So, too, is the extent and degree of pollution of the sea caused by shipping. Technological changes and the greater mobility of most persons have led to sources of pollution in areas that were once free from harm.

Water pollution is, only one aspect of the conservation which the physical environment committee of the N.D.C. was set up to examine; except for air pollution in some special areas, such as Christchurch, it is probably the most important The benefits and pleasures which New Zealand’s ample water resources confer on all citizens are too obvious to need emphasising; but because they are taken for granted the need to protect them might easily be overlooked. So far, contamination of the environment has not gone as far here as elsewhere. This country has the opportunity, and should be prepared to pay the price, of preserving water resources so that future generations, too, may enjoy, in Keats’s words: “The moving waters at their priestlike task “ Of pure absolution round earth’s human shores.”