"By July we want all water-take consents to have an appropriate water meter, and for all water consent holders to provide information to show they comply with their consent conditions." The authority was responsible for monitoring three times more water takes than any other region and had been working with water consent holders and the irrigation industry around national water metering rules that took effect in 2012. The environmental group has revealed data showing hundreds of instances of irrigators repeatedly breaching water consent conditions and being caught without functioning water meters -- but only being given warnings by Environment Canterbury (ECan). However, in Canterbury irrigators seem to be able to be ignore them with impunity." "There is simply no excuse for taking the water for months or even years before installing a water meter."

Source: New Zealand Herald June 20, 2016 03:11 UTC