Special DayThe Sunday at the beginning of this past week was World Rivers Day. It's an international day (at least 100 countries honour it) celebrating what rivers mean to all of us. Deliberately on that day, New Zealand's Land, Air, Water, Aotearoa, (LAWA) Project released its River Water Quality National Picture Summary 2021. Reporting on this release, news outlet Newshub's headline read: Two-thirds of New Zealand's rivers ecologically impaired - LAWA report And Radio New Zealand said: Grim picture for NZ waterways on World Rivers Day Doesn't sound like celebration does it? Well researchedQuoting LAWA project member and Cawthron Freshwater Ecologist Dr Roger Young, the radio New Zealand script continued:
Magic site
They live in rivers
Determined rivers man inspired World DayThe World Rivers Day website says this about how the day came to be.
'A World Rivers Day event was seen by agencies of the UN as a good fit for the aims of the Water for Life Decade and the proposal was approved. River enthusiasts from around the world came together to organize the inaugural WRD event. That first event in 2005 was a great success and Rivers Day was celebrated across dozens of countries. Since then, the event has continued to grow. It is annually celebrated on the fourth Sunday of every September. Last year, several million people in up to 100 countries celebrated the many values of our waterways. But New Zealand river lovers are not happyLook at this comment 'World Rivers Day designated for Sunday 26 September, should be renamed ‘Rivers’ Shame Day' according to the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers.' ³ And look at this 'The Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations (CORANZ) said there was no celebration nor even acknowledgment of the day’s special significance. CORANZ chairman Andi Cockroft said the ignoring or lack of awareness was deeply disappointing. “Particularly so because New Zealand’’s river quality has been allowed to decline to appallingly low quality levels.”' Next year ?I'm glad that Mark Angelo inspired the UN to have World Rivers Day every year on the fourth Sunday in September and I'm glad that millions of people all over the world celebrated last year. I hope they did so again last weekend. I'm sorry though that here in New Zealand we didn't really notice the day and I'm sorry that the LAWA report, released on a celebratory day, paints a poor picture of the state of our rivers. I hope that those of us in New Zealand who love rivers will be motivated to invigorate our efforts for change. □ John McInnes Friday 1 October 2021 References: please click a text below LAWA River Water Quality National Picture Summary 2021 ¹ Niwa for further detail about Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI ² LAWA report described in RNZ National script ³ ‘Rivers’ Shame Day' ⁴ World Rivers Day ignored ##########
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