http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/86992441/road-or-river-barren-selwyn-reaches-new-low-swimming-spot-stagnant
The Selwyn river is polluted and running dry. The signs say there's a river here, but no one's seen it in months.
A long stretch of the Selwyn River near Christchurch is barren. Its dry river-bed is snaked by tyre tracks, faint clues of its past as a river disappearing as it becomes a vehicle track.
A beloved swimming spot downstream is stagnant. Fish and eels die in their dozens, trapped in pools evaporating around them.
The region has a deficit of water due to prolonged drought conditions.
One part of the Selwyn district had 42 per cent of its usual rainfall between June and September. Last year brought record low rainfalls.
"Although there has been rain in the last few months, it has not been enough to fully recharge aquifers.
...
Fish & Game said there was a clear connection between extraction for irrigation and dry rivers than authorities would care to admit.
The amount of groundwater allocated for irrigation in Selwyn is 134 per cent of the limit.
Some irrigators have been on restrictions, particularly around Coes Ford, but many irrigators around the river were in action this week.
Fish & Game was now using its resources to rescue fish in their thousands throughout Canterbury.
It did not agree that weather was the main culprit.
"Fish & Game doesn't hold that view nor do an awful lot of other people out there," Cullinane said.
