Te Wahipounamu - Southwest New Zealand (New Zealand)
The Committee was informed that the Government of New Zealand has approved an application from a private company for a licence to export water from the World Heritage site. The exportation of freshwater would require the construction of a dam, a buried pipeline and four large reservoirs at Jackson's Bay. The Committee noted that the visual and ecological impacts of the proposed development project were not clearly known and that the legal and economic considerations which guided the decision to approve the project are being actively debated in New Zealand. The Committee instructed the Centre to contact the New Zealand authorities and request them to keep the Committee informed of the environmental impacts of the water export project.