Originally Posted by
karen1
Don't really want to get into the argument uu, having not followed this thread closely, but you're question got me thinking.
Fifty years ago, as a kid, I swum in the Waikato River opposite the then operational Meremere Power Station. It didn't kill me, but my Mother would have had she known! The water was always clear then. Twenty years ago I paddled that river from Cambridge to Tuakau over 3 days, with a group of Venturer Scouts. We had to lay down some pretty strict rules with the kids when we realised it's state, the other option being calling the trip off.
Almost every time my paddle hit the water I wanted to cry - the water was filthy, the flow pathetic. In fact there were areas we had to drag canoes over, amongst much rubbish. To see a once beautiful stretch of river reduced to this dismal state is devastating. I don't have the answers, wish I did. So much for progress.