Whaitua committee background

Meaning of whaitua

The Māori word whaitua means a designated space or catchment.

Greater Wellington Regional Council is working closely with communities to manage land and water through whaitua committees.

Whaitua committees

The Wellington Region has been split into five whaitua (catchments) with a committee in each making decisions on the future of land and water management in that whaitua.

The following whaitua committees have been established:

• Ruamāhanga Whaitua – established December 2013

• Te Awarua-o-Porirua Whaitua – established December 2014

The following three committees to be established are:

• Wellington Harbour and Hutt Valley Whaitua

• Kāpiti Coast Whaitua

• Wairarapa Coast Whaitua

Why have whaitua committees?

Whaitua committees form the basis of Greater Wellington Regional Council’s (GWRC’s) programme to implement the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM). The NPS-FM includes minimum standards for freshwater that Councils must seek to achieve, so that the overall water quality in a region is maintained or improved.

Whaitua committees produce Whaitua Implementation Programmes (WIPs) which describe the ways in which the people from that catchment want to manage their water now and for future generations through a range of integrated tools, policies and strategies.