National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management

Some key changes introduced through the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) include:

• Te Mana o te Wai framework has been strengthened with a specific hierarchy of obligations. The new hierarchy places the health and wellbeing of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems first.
• Expectations and direction about involving Māori in freshwater decision-making has been strengthened.
• New compulsory values and attributes have been included.
• There is now a requirement for the Regional Council to map, monitor and manage wetlands and obstacles to fish passage.

Our planning framework will need to be updated to give effect to these changes.

All resource consent applications should now include an assessment against the NPS-FM, in particular in regard to Te Mana o Te Wai. Under the Resource Management Act Council must now take the provisions of the NPS-FM into account when processing resource consent applications received after the Essential Freshwater Package took effect (03 September 2020).

Click here to view the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management