Fresh water is a very important resource to manage. Without fresh, clean water, life is simply not possible. This is why when a countries fresh water supply begins to become polluted it is a very serious matter. This is in fact the reason why for years freshwater quality has been New Zealands number one environmental concern (Toki, 2012). Within New Zealand there are two main contributors towards fresh water pollution (Wilcock, 1986). These are from Urban development and Agricultural expansion. The following news log will introduce the environmental concern and the key stakeholders from both sides of the argument, it will analyse news articles about the issue will include my own opinion on the matter. One of the main contributours towards fresh water pollution in New Zealand is the intensification of agriculture, especially dairy farms. Since the 1960’s the amount of dairy farms in New Zealand has been on a sharp increase (Macleod, Moller, 2006). Along with the increase in numbers of farms there has also been huge intensification with the amount of animals per square kilometre (Macleod, Moller, 2006). Within Canterbury alone there are now 194,000 Dairy cattle with an increasing rate of 19% per year (Dynes et al, 2009). The most catastrophic water pollution caused from this intensification of catlles is caused from the heavy use of fertilizers and hormone boosters (Arnon et al, 2008). As the amount of Dairy cattle in New Zealand is increasing so rapidly, Farmers are forced to use a lot more fertiliser and hormone boosters to insure that there stock and land is healthy. When these boosters are used huge amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Tungston, Testosterone and Estrogen have been found to enter the water system (Arnon et al, 2008). When these pollutes enter the water system they are either carried downstream by rivers and streams or they infiltrate the ground water. The polluted river and stream water is then unsafe for Human interaction and the polluted ground water can no longer be welled for anything other than irrigation purposes (Martin, Noonan, 1997). Another main contributor towards the pollution of fresh water is the Urban development that has taken place in New Zealand over the last 60 years (Toki, 2012). Urban flooding and runoff that is caused from development is one of the main causes of urban fresh water pollution (Niemczynowicz, 1999). When water that runs off the impervious surfaces that are abundant in an developed urban area, the tend to pick up Oils, heavy metals, rubbish and other pollutes that harm the fresh water (Niemczynowicz, 1999). Once again this polluted runoff ends up in rivers and streams as well as the ground water system contaminating the fresh water. Once a fresh water system has been