Comments on freshwater policy review – draft Freshwater Management Units stories

The NZKGI Feedback on BOPRC FMU Stories outlines growers’ strong reliance on freshwater for irrigation, frost protection and ongoing orchard viability, and expresses concern about uncertainty created by emerging freshwater policy. While supporting improvements to water quality, NZKGI highlights gaps in data, unclear contaminant source apportionment, and inconsistencies in monitoring across FMUs, making it difficult for growers to assess the scale and fairness of proposed changes. Key themes include the need for workable permitted activity pathways for water storage and artificial wetlands, clarity on minimum flows and allocation limits, fair approaches to clawback, better recognition of climate‑change pressures, and ensuring new requirements align with growers’ economic realities and the industry’s regional significance. Overall, NZKGI urges BOPRC to adopt a practical, evidence‑based, adaptive policy that protects waterways while still enabling grower resilience, investment and long‑term growth.