Campaigners have won a long-running legal battle to overturn consent allowing two bottling companies to extract millions of litres of water from Christchurch aquifers.
Environment Canterbury had allowed Cloud Ocean Water and Rapaki Natural Resources to extract 8.8 million litres of water each year.
But now the Court of Appeal has overturned that decision.
There has been a small but active group called the Aotearoa Water Action group that took the battle right through the courts.
They lost in the High Court but now have won in Wednesday's Court of Appeal decision.
There was also enormous public backlash following the consent, as thousands of people took to Christchurch streets in 2019 to express outrage over the decision to take millions of litres of water a day from three bores in Christchurch.
Much of the water was bound for overseas in China to be sold at a premium price.
Nearly $100,000 was donated to the Aotearoa Water Action group to fight the decision and now Environment Canterbury has also been ordered to pay their appeal costs.
The Aotearoa Water Action group are thrilled at Wednesday's decision and said all of Christchurch should be thrilled too because it helps protect the city's water.
So perhaps they'll be celebrating tonight with a round of drinks of Christchurch's finest tap water.
