Water is ORC’s No.1 priority. We are changing how we manage water in Otago and we want you to be involved.

All regional councils must set Freshwater Management Units (FMUs) under the Ministry for the Environment’s National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020. An FMU is a waterbody or multiple waterbodies that is at an appropriate scale for managing water and setting freshwater objectives and limits. This can be a river catchment, part of a catchment, or a group of catchments. 

We set FMUs for Otago in April 2019 (see map below). We are also developing a new Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP), which is scheduled to be notified by the end of June 2024. Each FMU or rohe will form a chapter of the LWRP, ensuring water management is based on locally determined values, rather than on a ‘one-size-fits all’ region-wide approach. 

The concept of ki uta ki tai (from the mountains to the sea) recognises the movement of water through the landscape and its interactions along the way. This concept has shaped the FMU boundaries, along with cultural knowledge and values, land use, geological and scientific maps and other relevant information.

The larger FMUs are subdivided into smaller areas (rohe), to acknowledge the unique values and objectives for different parts of a catchment. The FMUs and rohe also gave us practical areas for carrying out community consultation while developing the LWRP between October 2020 and November 2023.