Hurunui irrigation on track
The Hurunui Water Project in North Canterbury and other irrigation schemes will continue despite the Government cutting taxpayer assistance via the Crown Irrigation Investments fund.
Irrigation developers expressed disappointment while Forest & Bird declared the move a victory for rivers.
Hurunui Water chief executive Chris Pile said the company would go ahead with further planned fundraising in about eight weeks from shareholders of the $200 million scheme.
‘‘It won’t immediately affect our farmers but it may affect the next generation of farmers or the one after that,’’ he said.
Pile said the effect of the Government’s decision to cut irrigation funding meant the scale of the planned infrastructure would be constrained.
The Hurunui Water scheme will store water from the Hurunui River in an artificial pond or lake built by Rooney Construction, which has developed most of the large schemes in Canterbury.
‘‘This scheme is about droughtproofing and long-term resilience, not wide-scale dairy development. We are locating our on-plains storage pond on farmland, instead of building dams and flooding native bush and ecosystems – meaning less impact on the natural environment,’’ Pile said.
Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis said the well-advanced Hunter Downs scheme in south Canterbury was likely to be completed. But the less advanced Flaxbourne scheme near Blenheim was uncertain.
Curtis said there were indications in comments from Finance Minister Grant Robertson that there may still be funding for water schemes available through the Provincial Growth Fund.
He welcomed the continued support for the Waimea and Kurow Duntroon projects.
Curtis said planned irrigation projects met new environmental and nutrient limits.
But water ecologist Dr Mike Joy said the nutrient limits set by regional councils such as Environment Canterbury were too lax and encouraged farming to the limits.
In the North Island taxpayers were already paying millions of dollars to clean up Lake Taupo and other lakes by paying farmers not to farm, Joy said.
It was ludicrous that taxpayers should be subsidising irrigation schemes that would require future taxpayers to fund more clean-up programmes.
Forest & Bird’s freshwater advocate, Annabeth Cohen, said the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that have been going into irrigation schemes would be better spent helping farmers move to sustainable farming.
‘‘Forest & Bird and a coalition of scientists, health professionals, iwi and community groups have been calling for an end to irrigation subsidies for some time, as part of the solution to New Zealand’s freshwater crisis.’’
Cohen said dams wreak havoc on the natural environment – reducing river flows, affecting the habitats of native species, and leading to more intensive farming.
‘‘We really want to see farmers supported into innovative farming methods that won’t damage the environment.’’
Cohen said Forest & Bird would be keeping a close watch on the Provincial Growth Fund, which the Government has indicated could be used to fund smaller water-storage schemes.