What matters to you? Waikato survey results released

Water quality continues to be considered the most important environmental issue for Waikato residents.

That’s one of the key findings of the latest Your Environment – What Matters? survey of 1206 residents undertaken in March and April 2022 by Waikato Regional Council.

A report on the survey, which is held every three years to understand community perspectives on environmental issues of relevance to the council, was presented at the Strategy and Policy Committee meeting last week.

The survey, which was first held in 1998, provides trend data on attitudes and perceptions of Waikato residents over time, and analysis of the data contributes towards policy development and evaluation and the development of education programmes.

In the 2022 survey, water quality was considered the most important environmental issue facing the Waikato region today by 42 per cent of those surveyed, followed by climate change (14 per cent), waste (13 per cent), urban and population growth (4 per cent), and air quality (2 per cent).

Concerns over water quality, climate change, population and urban growth, and consequential pressures on infrastructure and air quality were identified as most important for the region in five years’ time.

Social Scientist Dr Melissa Hackell told the committee that water was considered the most important environmental issue due to the critical role it played in people’s lives and the wider ecosystem, however, many respondents saw the issues as linked.

“For example, concern was expressed that climate change and urban and population growth are placing increasing pressure on water quality and supply.” 

Regarding climate change, which is one of the council’s strategic priorities, 75 per cent of respondents said they were concerned about its effects, with 73 per cent saying they have undertaken activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (up from 66 per cent in 2019).

The primary actions people took to reduce emissions were adopting more eco-friendly travel methods (35 per cent) or changing heating/electricity methods (10 per cent).

Regarding the environment, 40 per cent of respondents disagreed that the public has enough say in the way it has been managed and 53 per cent of respondents felt there were insufficient opportunities for communities to be involved in activities to protect it.

The most common suggestions for improving community involvement were more events (18 per cent), improved awareness and education (16 per cent) and community activities (11 per cent).

Other key findings included changes to residents’ perceptions of the state of their local environment. Just 16 per cent felt it had improved – down from 23 per cent in 2019 and 55 per cent in 1998.

The full report is available online at https://waikatoregion.govt.nz/assets/WRC/TR202248.pdf.