2021 Whanganui River Annual

Tamata pokai Whenua (Tamatea who penetrated the land), made the first trip up our river, so he was our first tourist. By following in his footsteps, todays’ canoeists are still seeing what he saw. But the state of the water has deteriorated ever since the coming of the pakeha.

The waters’ present state was graphically spelt out to Friends at our AGM last year, when Horizons Councillor Nicola Patrick said it was only swimmable 70 per cent of the time. When I started canoeing the river back in the 19505, it was usually muddy-“too thick to drink, too thin to plough” was the sarcastic epithet thrown at it.

Upstream, Taumarunui poured its sewage into it. Downstream, Whanganui also poured its sewage in. Both communities have now cleaned up their acts and the water is uncontaminated from those sources. But that wasn’t enough-the river is still polluted due to run-off from farmlands.

Fortunately, the proposed hydro dam at Atene (late 1950s, early 1960s) was found to be too costly. If built, it would have spelt ruin for our most scenic waterway and devastated what remained of the river below it. Ever since water was taken from its upper reaches in 1972 to feed the
Waikato hydro-generating system, there has been further deterioration.

Without fresh water to flush out silt, and with a reduced cooler water input, its temperature has risen and is now often too hot for fish to live in it. Also the warmth encourages the growth of algae..