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The government has sacked the entire Environment Canterbury council and is putting commissioners in charge, with highly respected senior civil servant Dame Margaret Bazley taking over the helm.
Environment Minister Nick Smith and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide said at a press conference Bazley will be joined by four to six further commissioners to be appointed in the next few weeks.
"It is the government view that without this intervention we would continue with ... the muddle around managing that all important freshwater resource," says Smith.
"Across the board, there has been a collapse of confidence in Environment Canterbury that has brought about the necessity of this government intervention."
Canterbury is the largest region in New Zealand with the second largest population, and the management of its huge water resources prompted the government to order a review last year.
In February a review team recommended commissioners be appointed urgently to replace the Environment Canterbury (ECan) council and turn around what it considered woeful performance in terms of administering water management responsibilities and resource consent processes.
The review found the relationship between ECan and territorial authorities in the region was "not good" and it recommended setting up an entirely new authority to manage water issues.
The Labour Party previously said Canterbury water management would be better served by enforcing tougher, new environmental requirements than by passing responsibility to a new tier of unelected local government.
However, the move should mean more water for irrigation for farmers.
"We think this is the way forward now," says Graeme Sutton of Irrigation New Zealand.
But environmental groups, like Bird and Forest, are appalled.
"There's no doubt about it - the loser will be Canterbury's wild rivers," says Bird and Forest's Chris Todd.
"We'll have dams on rivers where they would not have been if we'd had democratic imput into the decisions."
New boss Bazley knows the road ahead will be tough.
"I'm not giving any assurances to anybody - it's a very important issue for Canterbury and the whole of New Zealand and we'll be working through it very carefully," she says.
