Kohu Water Ltd has been given consent to extract 236,000cu m of groundwater per year for bottling from an aquifer near the Dart River until 2038. Last week, under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, the ORC released water consents to the ODT. She said she only found out about Kohu Water Ltd when she questioned the Otago Regional Council about bottled water consents. The Kohu and Alpine Pure consents showed the current environmental laws were not strong enough and the proposed government changes would only "tilt the playing field in favour of high-impact developments without proper consideration of environmental and other impacts", she added. Last Friday, Environment Minister Nick Smith said "there was a fairness problem with charging bottled water for export and not other water users".

Source: Otago Daily Times March 19, 2017 17:02 UTC