Porirua Harbour Trust
Is the health of the Porirua Harbour important to you? – become a Harbour Trustee.
26 Jul 2019
The Porirua Harbour Trust is looking for new trustees, especially from the rural sector, Tawa to Johnsonville, Porirua and northern part of the catchment, to ensure that the health of our harbour is protected and improved while providing economic and cultural opportunities, now and in the future.
The Porirua Harbour and Catchment Community Trust is an independent charitable trust with the primary aim to “promote the sustainable management of the Porirua Harbour and its catchment”.
The Trust has three vacancies and expressions of interest are invited from people willing to volunteer their time and skills. We need people who represent the diversity of our community with skills and knowledge in: water management, ecology, rural and urban issues, community consultation, communication, financial management and education.
Appointment is for a three-year term. Please send Expressions of Interest including your CV and an outline of your relevant interests to: phacctsec@gmail.com by 5.00pm, Monday 19 August 2019.
The Te Awarua o Porirua Harbour catchment is huge and many people don’t realise that all of the water that flows through the many streams in the catchment deposit sediment, debris and contaminants into the Porirua Harbour.
Storm water off your roof and the roads from Johnsonville, Newlands, Paparangi, Woodbridge, Grenada, Churton Park, and Tawa flows north via numerous streams into Porirua Stream and eventually into Porirua Harbour. Likewise storm water and water from roads from Pauatahanui, Whitby, Aotea, Camborne, Pukerua Bay, Elsdon and Porirua East contribute flow into the harbour.
That means that all of the road run off, storm water and household run off from cars and houses being washed from areas as far as Johnsonville to the south and Pukerua Bay to the north, impact on the health of the environment along the waterways leading to the Porirua Harbour.
Porirua Harbour, comprising the Onepoto Arm and the Pauatahanui Inlet, is the centre piece of Porirua City. It is the largest estuary system in the lower North Island. As well as having a nationally significant wildlife area and breeding ground for numerous species of fish, the estuary has cultural, recreational, economic (transport), and other wildlife habitat values.
The recent Te Awarua o Porirua Harbour Whaitua Implementation Report is a landmark assessment of the health of the harbour and catchment. It describes the reasons for the steady decline in the quality of fresh and coastal water and ecosystems. It provides 76 recommendations to reverse this decline. The Trust is well placed to monitor and report on how well local authorities respond to the urgency described in the Whaitua report.