Charging for freshwater take would solve a number of other issues with our water.

Forest and Bird campaign manager Kevin Hackwell says there's a crisis of water quality in low-lying areas of New Zealand.

He told Mike Hosking that charging by the litre would be an ideal situation to keep the water where it's needed.

"If we were charging for it we'd have more efficient use, therefore there would be less used and that would ease the problem, but also the income coming back could be used to fix up that problem."

He also said there's a real issue with water in some locations, especially when farmers need to irrigate.

"And there we should be looking at how efficiently are we using it, and one of the ways you get people to use it efficiently- so you don't take too much - is if you ask them to pay for it"

Yesterday, Aucklanders used 15 million litres more than the target, consuming 415 million litres of water.

LISTEN ABOVE AS KEVIN HACKWELL SPEAKS TO MIKE HOSKING