New Zealand: The Whanganui River has gained its own legal identity with all the corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a legal person after a 170-year battle.

Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament on Wednesday, will establish a new legal framework for the river.

New Zealand courts have made the Whanganui River a legal person. Credit:Fairfax NZ

It recognised the 145-kilometre long river - the third-longest in New Zealand - as an indivisible and living whole from the mountains to the sea.

"The approach of granting legal personality to a river is unique," Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson said.