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A popular Gisborne river that becomes a "liquid slurry of mud" in bad weather is increasingly unusable for recreationalists and wildlife alike, waka ama groups say.
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Photo: Alice Angeloni/LDR
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles expects a research project will find links between untreated sewage discharged into Gisborne rivers in rain events and illness.
Dr Wiles, who was named New Zealander of the Year in March for her leadership in the fight against Covid-19, will be researching what she calls nasty bacteria in Gisborne s Waimatā River.
She is part of the University of Auckland s Let the Rivers Speak team, which has just started a three-year initiative finding new ways to give rivers voice and to revitalise rivers as living communities of landscapes, plants, animals and people.
Dan Hikuroa, who is leading the project alongside Dame Anne Salmond, said the study would build on Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River) Act, in which Aotearoa in 2017 became the first nation-state to recognise a river as a legal person.