The rain has fallen on Central Otago since the turn of the year, and the big issue facing the district is exactly what that brought us - water. 

Water fell from the skies in record amounts in some places. In others, it swelled rivers and creeks and washed roads and bridges. 

It was much-needed by farmers in some places, but now, it is too much. 

Strange to say after early warnings were for a dry, borderline drought summer. 

Otago Regional Council regulatory general manager Richard Saunders said in December central and western parts of the lower South Island would experience a La Nina summer this year, meaning drier conditions and a higher risk of drought than usual. 

But now, orchards have been flooded, cherry crops all but destroyed. 

The town of Naseby has copped the brunt of it as well, for the second year in a row the town lost its water supply and has spent the start of the year on a Boil Water Notice. 

At one point, the town supply ran dry and the local volunteer fire brigade had to fill from a local dam, and supply houses with water to flush toilets. 

Some argued it ran dry because the water tanks were only half full before Christmas. 

The situation became a public health issue as Council scrambled to fix the problem and Fulton Hogan rushed to install portaloos. 

Portaloos were installed in Naseby after the town’s water supply stopped working. 

The town of roughly 140 permanent residents swells to about 4,000 people at Christmas and New Year, with the vast majority of those holiday makers leaving almost as soon as they arrived thanks to the water issue. 

Local businesses lost their chance at their busiest period, as well as any hope of recovering from the fallout of COVID-19. 

The issue here though, is water. An issue the world over. 

While the Government works on its Three Waters policy and tries to wrangle regional and local councils together on the issue, ratepayers fork the bill while waiting on action. 

Towns like Naseby feel like they are treated like second-class citizens to the likes of Alexandra and Cromwell. The tyranny of distance and economics not in their favour perhaps. 

But again, the broader issue here is water. Something which has been taken for granted by humanity for too long. 

Perhaps the most important resource on Earth continues to be a problem and perhaps only gets harder as time goes on and populations rise. 

The Manuherekia River continues to perform badly in terms of environmental health due to increasing pressure on the catchment. 

The Government listed the river on the At-Risk Catchments programme in 2020.

The year 2020 also saw infighting in the Otago Regional Council, which many argued was a result of “water politics”. 

We live in paradise, with mountains, hills and grasslands intersected by flowing creeks and rivers. 

Water is the most important resource on the planet, and a vital to Central Otago. 

It is hard to fathom that for all our wealth and prosperity, our modern, developed nation struggles to get water right. 

The tremendous growth New Zealand, and our region in particular, has experienced and continues to experience needs to now invest in improving the quality of water. 

It is pretty damning that we have been so blessed to have had such great water for so long, but now we are playing catchup to upgrade drinking water infrastructure. 

Thankfully, this conversation is being had. The Central Otago District Council is working on various projects to improve quality and update services. 

The Ardern Government has made it one of its priorities to lift water health across the country. 

I just hope everyone can come to the table to lift the game across the board. 

Water we drink, spray on our crops, give to our livestock, or even fish and waterski on, is the most important thing to us. 

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Water, and the environment, needs to be considered the most important resource for our society for our health, prosperity and enjoyment. 

We are approaching a point in history where the economy is intrinsically linked to the environment. 

If we didn’t have our water, we wouldn’t have much. 

Now is the time we need to work on making sure what is in our rivers, and what is in our drinking glasses, is the best quality we can have for now and the future. 

Let’s get water right.