Louise Askin - Whaitua Te Whanganui-a-Tara Committee
Kia ora koutou, I’m Louise from Makara, and a co-chair of the Whaitua Te Whanganui-a-Tara Committee. We are a community committee tasked with making recommendations to Greater Wellington Regional Council and our city councils on the future of water quality and its use in Wellington, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt (our Whaitua). Our waterways are precious and our water networks (freshwater, wastewater and stormwater) are vital for our community’s wellbeing. Recently, we have been learning about the state of water in our area and gathering community input on how water is valued and what should be done to look after it.
I live with my family beside the Makara Stream and we follow its path each day, winding from the beach up toward the headwaters above Makara Village or Ohariu. Our rural communities value their waterways and we want their input on how to best achieve reductions of sediment and pathogens in our rural areas. In town, there is a huge job ahead in upgrading the piped water networks and lessening our three cities’ impact on water quality - while also planning for population growth. Our region must meet national water quality requirements within a few years so we want to find solutions that reflect our communities’ views and are informed by good evidence and information.
Get in touch with us to give us your thoughts. You can reach us at whaitua@gw.govt.nz. To see what we have been doing visit our Facebook page. To share what you value about our water and your solutions, have your say here.
Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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37.5% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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62.5% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
💨 Wellington: Is the real summer finally here?
It’s the talk of the town (and every coffee queue): the Wellington "summer" has felt more like a very long, very damp spring! 🌧️ We’ve definitely had our fair share of grey skies and raincoats lately.
In fact, The Post reports that our "pretty average" summer has been tough on the local venues and events that usually thrive under the sun. But don't pack away the sunscreen just yet!
The good news? The next couple of weeks are looking a bit more "settled" (the Wellington word for "not a gale-force downpour"). With autumn officially here, now is the time to squeeze every last drop out of the season! ☀️
Any local hidden spots or activities you’d recommend for a calm Wellington day? Drop them in the comments! 👇
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