The rivers of my youth

"Consider the new management policy the polluters’ political representatives have set for our waterways. The quality of the water must be such that merely by wading in it New Zealanders can be confident of avoiding illness. But rivers and streams that they can swim in? No, no! That’s too much to expect. Too much to ask for."

Chris Trotter touches the ground and finds it diminished.

All this means more to me at the moment as I visit the rivers I swam in as a boy, only now I'm not, I'm a local-body politician hearing of plans to dam the Lee river, deep and green, cool and refreshing, to serve the people of the Waimea Plains who...need water...