It's been a soggy old week where I live, the kind of week where you feel winter closing in, see the wet months dragging out before you and start pining for those long, dry summer days. These are the days when we regret our temperate climate and the rain it brings. But we need a reality check. All that rain is one of this country's key strategic assets.
If the rural sector is the backbone of our economy, water is the spinal fluid that allows it to work. And as important as it has been for the past century, it will only be more so in the rest of the 21st century as our climate changes, and we see more extreme weather around the globe.
If you look at the dry horrors facing California's Central Valley - the world's largest single food production area - or the massive Darling basin in Australia - the size of Spain and France combined - you'll get an idea of how scary a lack of water can be.
Coleridge's line from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner best describes water availability on this planet - "water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"; less than 3% of the world's water is said to be fresh, and most of that takes the form of ice or snow. With the world's population expected to grow by about 50% in the next 50 years, water will be an incredibly valuable asset.
Which is why the way water is run in this country should matter to us. We are relatively well endowed. Sector group Water New Zealand says our rainfall is about two metres per annum, compared to the world average of 0.8 metres. But if we want to protect that and use it wisely then we need to start taking it seriously.
As it stands, regional councils have the core responsibility for water in New Zealand, and with all due respect to those councils, that hardly shouts "water matters", does it?
On Q+A recently, former deputy prime minister Wyatt Creech described the management of water in New Zealand as "deteriorating" . He said it's simply "silly" that in such a small country we have 13 different regional policies covering water.
Compared to Australia, the US and other similar countries we have the most de-centralised water management system going. Regulations and standards are inconsistent from region to region, aquifers are being over-used, and as the Greens have repeatedly pointed out our rivers and lakes are filthy.
Creech was amazed to learn that in Canterbury, home to something like half of our freshwater resources (although the exact amount is debated), the lack of a water plan meant "more than half the water taken in Canterbury for irrigation hasn't been being metred".
In conversation with me, Creech said that if water is the "new oil", then we're doing a pretty poor job looking after this precious resource. He asked, would Saudi Arabia let its regional councils run the oil business there? It's ludicrous.
As Creech says, it's time to bring water management under the control of central government. It's too important to be left with local politicians here and there around the country. Whether it comes under the new Environmental Protection Agency, NIWA or its own ministry, water needs to be handed over to experts with a national, long-term perspective.
That body should then work within the bounds of a national water strategy that seeks to balance productive usage with conservation, but that starts with a "public good" principle; ie water should be a right for every citizen and it should be managed for the good of all. If private companies want to use the resource, then we need to figure out a way of charging them. (Would Saudi Arabia give away its oil? I think not.)
The government has created The Land and Water forum to nut out "how water should be managed in New Zealand". It brings together environmentalists, iwi, business leaders, academics, and famers to bash out a new approach. It's a noble attempt to get stakeholders around a table, talking to each other and trying to reach a consensus. It reports back in July; here's hoping a single, national body is at the heart of its recommendations.
Tim Watkin is a producer for TV ONE's Q+A programme , Sundays from 9am. Read more of his articles here .
