Kei te whakahē te iwi o Rongowhakaata i te tono a Te Kaunihera o Te Tai Rāwhiti ki te whakamahi i ngā wai o te rohe o Tūranga Nui-a-Kiwa. Ka whai tēnei i te whakarite a te Kāwanatanga kia tū he rōpū take wai, kia whanake ngā kōrero e pā ana ki te waitī me ngā whakaaetanga.
Hei tāJody Wyllie o Rongowhakaata, "The crux of the matter issue for all Māori right around NZ is the ownership of water and its coming. The fact that we're starting this conversation around allocation, and we're yet to have the conversation with the council and with the crown about who's owns water in this country."
Tata ki te hautoru ongā wai ka whakamahia ki ngā mahi whakamākūkū ki ngā raorao o Tūranga Nui a Kiwa, ka ahu mai te manawa whenua o Makauri.
Ko tā Wyllie, "We're not into halting progress, we're just a bit concerned about what they were doing in terms of injecting water from the Waiapaoa river into the aquifer and the fact that the area where it's being done is just downstream from a sewerage plant."
Kei te wāhanga tuarua whakamātautau nei ināianei, arā, kia purua ngā wai o te awa o Waipaua ki te manawa whenua o Makauri, kia kī tonu te puna, kia tarea tonu te tango i ngā wai.
He kairangahau whakaaetanga taiao a Murray Palmer mā Rongowhakaata, hei tāna, "The Waipaoa river is already under stress, from water allocation, the river and the Makauri are over-allocated, so we feel that extra water takes can damage the river significantly."
Ko tā Wyllie, "GDC is a subsidiary of the crown and people need to understand that relationship, that relationship is not right at the moment."
I whakapā atu a Te Kāea ki Te Kaunihera o Te Tairāwhiti, hei tā rātau kua whakatārewatia ngā whakawhitinga kōrero, ā, ka whanga tonu rātau kia puta te whakatau a te kaikomihana motuhake hei te marama e taka mai nei.