Hundreds rally in region’s water fight
Hundreds of people, and tractors, turned out in Hawke’s Bay to protest against water quality plans that some residents say could ‘‘absolutely devastate’’ the region.
Horticulturalists, irrigators, their families, employees, iwi and politicians all made their way to Farndon Park in Clive yesterday, as about 400 tractors drove there from Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds in Hastings.
They braved the cold and rain to protest against a water conservation order (WCO) that is to be considered by a special tribunal.
Protesters were not just upset by the potential for a WCO on the Ngaruroro River but how a local process that had been under way for years – managing water quality, flows and allocations in the area – could be over-ridden.
Growers, councillors, mayors and politicians all pushed the same message: ‘‘Say no to the
WCO.’’
Grower John Bostock said Hawke’s Bay wanted to make its own decisions, and the existing process, called Tank, involved the whole community.
Tank stands for the catchment area being looked at through the process, which includes the Tutaekuri, Ahuriri, Ngaruroro, and Karamu catchments, as well as the Heretaunga Plains aquifer system.
‘‘We might scrap against ourselves but ... we don’t want to be dictated to from Wellington.’’
That sentiment was echoed by Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, who said the decision would be ‘‘much better made by the people of Hawke’s Bay’’.
Bostock said if the WCO went ahead, it could be ‘‘totally drastic for Hawke’s Bay’’.
Forest & Bird was one of five parties seeking the WCO, and chief executive Kevin Hague said such comments were ‘‘nonsense’’.