The latest on the Waitangi Tribunal Hearings this week for Lake Horowhenua

By Leigh Marama McLachlan

“The Waitangi Tribunal has spent the past week hearing Muaūpoko iwi members claims to Lake Horowhenua and surrounding lands. It is the first hearing round of three set out for the Porirua ki Manawatu district inquiry.

Muaūpoko descendant Phil Taueki has has made it his mission to return Lake Horowhenua to Māori hands.

He is one of the claimants who finally got the chance to stand up and let the tribunal, and the Crown, know what he has spent years fighting for.

The first thing he wants to stop is Horowhenua District Council pumping storm water from Levin into the lake.

“The second thing that needs to happen is the Levin Wastewater Treatment Plant needs to be relocated, because it periodically discharges and seeps raw sewerage into the lake.”

He said about 5 million cubic centimetres of toxic sediment was in the lake and urgently needed to be removed.

“That’s laying on the bottom of the lake, on top of our ancestors, and it needs to be removed as quickly as possible.”

Related

Manawatu Standard – By NICHOLAS MCBRIDE

“The Waitangi Tribunal was told to imagine being stuck waste deep in a long drop to understand the conditions that Muaupoko iwi ancestors are in at Lake Horowhenua.

The hearing opened at the Horowhenua Events Centre in Levin on Monday, with 22 claims looking at Lake Horowhenua, Hokio Stream and the Horowhenua land block.

On Monday Judge Caren Fox said it would be one of the most profound hearings in the district….

At the second morning of the hearing, Phil Taueki staked his claim for his whanau to be included in the Crown’s Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Muaupoko Tribal Authority. He also raised a series of issues relating to the pollution of Lake Horowhenua…Taueki estimated hundreds of millions of dollars would be required to clean the lake.

“In his submission, Taueki claimed contaminants from the Levin landfill and wastewater treatment plant were pooled at the Hokio Beach area which then seeped out to the beach.

He said “clouds of brown sewage” were visible in the ocean.

“Because of the tides, all that sewage washes down the coast to Kapiti.”

Taueki said his whanau had always had a presence in the area, compared to other tribes.

“There was one whanau that never left, that was the Taueki whanau… The report by the Crown barely mentions Taueki, which shows how much weight you should put on their research… no-one is going to move me from my land at the lake.”

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Comment

A reminder to us all, long term pollution like this eventually catches up with us. Somewhere down the line, the lack of addressing these issues along the way, culminates in crisis. As long as profits take precedence over people and environments this kind of scenario is going to continue. With the TPPA signed now, we can now, unfortunately, look forward to more of this.

EnvirowatchRangitikei