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Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere

Description

NameLake EllesmereTe WaihoraDescriptionThe widespread Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere has a special place in the hearts of people in our district – for its mahika kai and natural beauty and as a source of creation or income, among other reasons.

For centuries, Te Waihora was a rich and sustainable environment for its people. In recent times, however, the mauri (life force) of the lake has become depleted. Drainage for farms has reduced the lake’s area. Water quality has been degraded by pollution seeping from surrounding land. Diverse animal and plant life has declined, and harvests have dwindled.

But a fresh initiative has seen the district’s kaitiaki and the wider community make concerted efforts to restore the lake’s mauri. A group representing local iwi and environmental and government bodies has taken charge to bring Te Waihora back to health.

Traditionally, local Māori would occasionally open the lake to the sea to manage the area as a habitat for fish and birds, including aiding tuna migration. Later Pākehā settlers used this method to drain surrounding wetlands for flood control, pasturage and land reclamation. Today the lake is less than half its original size.

Taumutu and Wairewa (Little River) Māori sent a letter of protest to the Superintendent of Canterbury Province in 1870. They were concerned that land owners were draining water from the lake whenever it suited them. The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 saw the lake bed returned to Te Rūnanaga o Ngāi Tahu, and its management and regeneration are now under a collaborative administration.

In 1904, a ceremony was held at Te Waihora where the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon T Y Duncan, opened a newly constructed outlet intended to stop the lake flooding onto surrounding farms on reclaimed land. Within seven months it was destroyed by heavy seas and another culvert was built in 1908-9. This lasted 16 years before it too was wrecked by seas.

Te Waihora catches what washes down from the Southern Alps and across the Canterbury Plains. Four main pollutants enter the lake this way – nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and faecal microbes. Farmland nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus take decades to filter through groundwater.

In 2011, the need to restore the health and mauri of Te Waihora was formally recognized. A co-governance agreement was signed between Te Waihora Management Board (representing Te Rūnanaga o Ngāi Tahu) and Environment Canterbury. By 2019, Selwyn District Council, Christchurch City Council and the Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai had also become signatories. The group aims to restore the lake’s ecosystems by cleaning up its catchment.

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