Select Committee hears water right pleas in Gore
Eastern Southland farmers made passionate pleas to politicians to grant them ownership of the Otama Rural Water Scheme at a Select Committee hearing in Gore yesterday.
In a rare move, members of the Governance and Administration Select Committee traded Wellington for Gore to hear from submitters on the Gore District Council (Otama Water Supply Bill).
Farmers, who in many cases set up the rural water supply, which now serves about 200 properties with stock and household water, are fighting for ownership of the scheme after the council was deemed to own it under the Local Government Act.
They would set up a company to administer and run the scheme, with all consumers being shareholders.
Submitters told stories of their fathers setting up the scheme, or of the hours of voluntary labour they had given setting it up, replacing pipes, digging trenches or fixing leaks over the 40 years it had been running.
The scheme’s committee chairman Tom Affleck told select committee chairman Brett Hudson and members Jamie Strange, Paul Eagle, Virginia Andersen, Hamish Walker and Dr Jian Yang the scheme was selfgoverning by a committee, and if the Bill didn’t come into effect and the council retained ownership, there would be price increases to farmers relying on the water.
‘‘To put it mildly, right from the word go, the consumers were always told we own it – we thought we owned everything,’’ Affleck said.
When Walker asked what those who had set up the scheme would think if ownership was retained by the council, Affleck replied ‘‘would you like to go up to the cemetery and calm them down? They would be very, very disappointed that the committee had let it go without a fight’’.
Among submitters was Peter Gardyne, who said the only way he could farm his land was with water from the scheme.
Water was a valuable commodity and he was thankful the farmers of the area had realised that, and had the foresight to begin developing the scheme, which provided high quality water, 40 years ago. ‘‘We can’t feed rubbish to animals and expect top quality meat out the other end.
The scheme also meant farmers could fence off streams instead of using them for stock water, which had environmental impacts, he said.
Gore District councillor and water scheme committee member John Gardyne said if the council took over the scheme, its management would be ‘‘dominated by councillors’’. ‘‘The owners would be lost and rural people would lose their voice. People have a responsibility if they think they own it.’’
Submitter Chris Affleck said farmers needed to retain ownership because they ‘‘needed to control the inputs and outputs.’’