Water limits set for irrigators on Waitaki
The Waitaki Irrigators Collective and Meridian Energy have signed a water limits deal for irrigators on the lower Waitaki River.
The Waitaki Irrigators Collective (WIC) represents six local irrigation schemes and independent irrigators all of which rely on water from Lake Waitaki, the lower Waitaki River and its tributaries to irrigate land for agriculture.
The deal formally outlined the agreement between Meridian and the collective to work together to introduce the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan (WAP) Plan Change 3 which outlined flow requirements below Meridian’s Waitaki Dam and when irrigators took water from the lower Waitaki River.
Plan Change 3 came into effect a year ago. At the time Environment Canterbury (ECan) commissioner Peter Skelton said the plan change addressed uncertainty in the allocation plan about the management of water during low flows.
‘‘It provides certainty for the replacement of consents for abstraction and hydro-electricity generation activity. It also provides cultural and environmental benefits by reserving water from the existing allocation limit. Water is reserved for mahinga kai (food collecting) and the values of tangata whenua (local Ma¯ori people) and for augmenting flows into Wainono Lagoon,’’ Skelton said.
‘‘New cessation flows show the river could drop to 111 cubic metres per second, and that the cessation flows were not minimum levels and the annual flow of the river very rarely ever gets below 150 [cumecs]’’.
‘‘It (the plan change) was designed to cover the dry years when there are low flows, and if it did get low, consenters could not take any more water.’’
Plan Change 3 responded to recommendations from the Lower Waitaki-South Coastal Canterbury zone committee. The zone committee considered consent holders rights and aimed to give them certainty, Skelton said
Irrigators and Meridian have supported ECan to change their own resource consents to introduce the flow requirements of WAP Plan Change 3.
WIC independent chairman Fraser McKenzie said the agreement would be good for the local community. ‘‘The deal is the beginning of a new phase in managing water resources. Working with Meridian and other stakeholders will provide consistency for us to maintain water into the future and support economic resilience in the local area.’’
Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company representative Chris Dennison said the memorandum with Meridian was important for the local irrigation sector. ‘‘Having access to the water from the Waitaki River and the storage provided by the hydro lakes gives us a reliable resource that we can manage sustainably and efficiently now and into the future.’’
Meridian markets and production general manager Guy Waipara said the set of management measures agreed through the WAP Plan Change 3 process would benefit the lower river. ‘‘It’s great to be moving into the new era for the Lower Waitaki River in such a positive and cooperative environment,’’ he said.