Mahere Kohinga Wai o Waipaoa

Waipaoa Catchment Plan Review

The Waipaoa Catchment Plan was developed alongside the Regional Freshwater Plan and publicly notified in 2015. The plan now needs to be reviewed to ensure it aligns with the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020.

A specific Waipaoa Catchment advisory group has been set up to guide this review.

How the Plan Stop legislation affects our timeline

Councils cannot notify new plan changes or reviews from 21 August 2025 to 31 December 2027 unless they have been granted an exemption. This pause means the timeline and scope of the catchment plans may need to change, as required under the Government's Plan Stop legislation

What the review of the Waipaoa Catchment Plan will do

The review was intended to:

  • actively engage and collaborate with iwi and hapū in freshwater planning
  • work with the freshwater advisory group to guide the review
  • ensure residents and stakeholders have opportunities to inform how water will be managed
  • provide clear direction for sustainable management of freshwater in the catchment.

Engagement with tangata whenua

Engagement with tangata whenua is central to the Waipaoa Catchment Plan and the freshwater planning process.

Through this engagement we aimed to develop a vision for Te Mana o Te Wai and work together to give effect to it. We also aimed to recognise mana whenua values, matauranga and aspirations.

Community Engagement

We planned to hold community workshops with residents and whānau from the catchment communities. All meetings were intended to be open to everyone.

Community engagement was expected to focus on:

  • reconfirming existing issues and values and identifying any new ones
  • Reconfirming the freshwater Management Units (FMU)
  • Reviewing and confirming objectives
  • Review targets, and change targets if appropriate
  • Reviewing water quality and quantity targets and amending if appropriate
  • Reviewing and confirming non-regulatory projects that support achieving objectives and targets

Waipaoa advisory group

The development of the Waipaoa Catchment Plan will be informed by the Advisory Group consisting of 20 members. Group members have committed to regularly attend monthly meetings to build an understanding of water quality and quantity issues in the catchment.

Members have strong link to the Waipaoa Catchment and represent a range of community perspectives. The advisory group 1. members are:

  1. Alan Haronga
  2. David Hawea 
  3. Grant Vincent
  4. Jacob Harrison
  5. Matawhero Lloyd
  6. Murray Palmer  (Rest in peace)
  7. Nick Briant
  8. Owen Lloyd
  9. Phil Gaukrodger  (Rest in peace)
  10. Samuel Lewis
  11. Shanna Cairns
  12. Stan Pardoe
  13. Stuart Davis (Rest in peace)
  14. Tim Rhodes
  15. Timothy Tietjen
  16. Leo Kelso
  17. Joss Ruifrok
  18. Bella Hawkins
  19. Hannah Kohn
  20. Tash Irwin

About the Waipaoa catchment

The Waipaoa River catchment is extensively farmed. It covers 216,484 ha and has formed the fertile and highly productive Poverty Bay flats on the edge of Gisborne city. It is an important source of water for irrigation, a back-up source of water for Gisborne city and the major recharge source for extensively used aquifers.

Key subcatchments of the Waipaoa include the Waikohu, Mangatu, Waingaromia, Wharekopae and Te Arai.

Some areas are particularly susceptible to soil erosion, notably in the Waingaromia and Mangatu subcatchments. As a result, the bed in the lower reaches of the catchment is building up due to sediment and gravel deposition. The Poverty Bay Flats and the city are protected by the stopbanks of the Waipaoa River Flood Control Scheme. Annual suspended sediment load for the Waipaoa catchment is 15 million tonnes or 33.54 cubic metres per second. This amount of sediment enters Poverty Bay.

Despite the high sediment loads of the lower reaches of the Waipaoa catchment many of the tributaries in the headwaters provide habitat for a range of indigenous fish species. These species rely on migration up the river system as juveniles and return to the sea as adults. Eels are one example in the fishery that requires this ability to migrate.

Trout are present in the Wharekopae tributary. They have been introduced and are not known to migrate.

Waipaoa catchment map

Waipaoa Catchment

How to get involved