WELLINGTON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Several of New Zealand's iconic lakes are getting a helping hand with a significant funding boost to help tackle the spread of aquatic weeds in the lakes, New Zealand's Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage said in Wanaka in the South Island on Thursday.

"With hundreds of thousands of people visiting our major lakes each year, keeping invasive aquatic weed at bay is essential to ensure they can continue to be enjoyed by generations to come," Sage said.

A fund of 7.5 million NZ dollars (5 million U.S. dollars) over four years has been set aside to support Land Information New Zealand's work to protect lakes, rivers and lands from invasive weeds and pests.

Land Information New Zealand is responsible for biosecurity at Lakes Wakatipu, Wanaka, Dunstan, Benmore and Aviemore in the South Island, and several lakes in the North Island.

"Helping ensure lakes are healthy not only makes sense for biodiversity but for the economy too," the minister said.

Visiting Lake Wanaka, Sage heard first-hand about the impact hessian matting has had on weed control, saying that this funding will mean more hessian matting can be used for weed control in lakes and waterways around the country.

"Whilst we have seen a strong focus on our land-based pests in recent years, the threats to our aquatic native species, and in fact to people's livelihoods, often go unseen," Sage said.