Southland's Freshwater Management Units (FMUs) have been set in accordance with the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014 (NPSFM, as amended in 2017). The six FMUs in Southland are Fiordland and Islands, Waiau, Aparima, Oreti and Mataura, with the addition of Waituna as a FMU following Environment Court appeals. A freshwater management unit (FMU) is a concept used nationally to plan and manage freshwater. The Ministry for the Environment describes a freshwater management unit as `the water body, multiple water bodies or any part of a water body determined by the regional council as the appropriate spatial scale for setting freshwater objectives and limits and for freshwater accounting and management purposes.’See the proposed Southland Land and Water Plan for more information on Southland's FMUs.
