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New Zealand Maori tribe stops company bottling sacred water

new-zealand-583177
new-zealand-583177
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A Maori tribe has temporarily prevented plans to bottle millions of litres of water from a spring in New Zealand’s North Island because they say the water is sacred and has healing powers.


The Raukawa, a regional tribe or iwi, objected to the plan because taking water directly from the Blue Spring or Te Puna would diminish its “mauri (vital essence), wairua (spirit) and mana (spiritual power),” Waikato Regional Council said in a statement on Wednesday.


Bottling company New Zealand Pure Blue Limited has applied for the rights to take 6.9 million litres of water per day for export from the Waihou River’s Blue Spring near Putaruru.


The company plans to set up a bottling plant and create the “largest production bottling plant in the southern hemisphere, exporting 100per cent of its products.”


According to the application, 60 million litres per day water flows from the Blue Springs per day (22 billion litres per year).


But Raukawa say they consider water within the Blue Spring “as pristine, and Te Puna is the place the water is most sacred and its healing powers most powerful, both spiritually and physically”.


It would also affect the relationship the iwi have as guardians with the spring.


New Zealand’s indigenous Maori see water as the essence of all life,and rivers play an essential role in their tribal identity and have arole in tribal creation stories.


The spring is fed from the Mamaku Plateau from where the water takes50 to 100 years to filter through, resulting in water that is so clean that it produces the distinctive blue colour.


The council said there was no set timeline for a decision yet. — dpa


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