Northland region

Water in Northland is a valuable resource used for agriculture, horticulture, water supply to towns and cities and industry. Northland has a dense network of relatively short and small streams with over 14,000 source to sea surface water catchments. Northland has a relatively high annual rainfall however this is not spread evenly throughout the year and prolonged dry periods are common during summer and autumn months. The rainfall pattern along with catchment geology and size influences stream flows and groundwater availability. Water allocation in most of Northland is relatively small proportional to mean annual low flows. However, a few catchments have high levels of allocation for a variety of consumptive uses. Abstraction of the full allocation in these catchments has the potential to cause environmental issues during prolonged dry periods because demand during this time is the highest. The Council is currently reviewing its Soil and Water Plan, with a draft plan due to be release in July 2016. The key focus of the review in terms of water quantity is establishing allocation limits, providing reasonable security of supply for water users and compliance with the National Policy Statement.