One of the pictures in a new book called New Zealand’s Rivers: an environmental history by Catherine Knight.  Waikanae River of course has recently seen the environmentally controversial recharge system where centuries-old bore water is pumped into the river to compensate for extra draw from the river upstream of the filtration plant during the hot dry summer months (see the post from last November).  The effect of this on the river ecology is being monitored.

The millions of dollars spent on the recharge system would have been superfluous if the sensible decision had been made by the council for a reservoir dam which is still going to be needed because of population growth from the huge new subdivisions.