More water bottling in Hawke’s Bay

Hawke’s Bay’s newest water bottling plant is gearing up to produce flavoured beverages later this year.

Auckland-based firm Alpine Drinks will be bottling the water drawn from a bore in an old storehouse undergoing renovations in Awatoto, Napier.

Consent to take up to 1.179 million cubic metres of water for bottling a year was granted to Sleeping Giant Holdings in 2013 – four years before a moratorium was put in place by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

Company director Craig Bryant referred questions to Alpine Drinks.

Its spokesman, Arajan Odedra, said the company planned to sell beverages made from water taken under the consent, and hoped to be operating from the waterfront site later this year.

‘‘We are looking at flavours, and different kinds of drinks, contract bottling and things.

‘‘It will be a bit of a mix of everything, a bit out of the norm, that’s why we’re calling ourselves Alpine Drinks, not Alpine Water.

‘‘We’re more into the healthconscious stuff. Only top-end products. We want to be different to the norm, not foreigners coming in and taking all the water. We want to be part of the community and provide jobs.’’

Sleeping Giant’s consent is one of 10 held in Hawke’s Bay for water bottling. In total, they permit the taking of more than five million cubic metres of water a year.

But five of those consent holders have never drawn any water, and since 2012, there has been just 132,000 cubic metres taken by the others.

Water bottling has been a contentious issue in the region for several years with critics worried the demands on the region’s aquifers could be unsustainable.

Those concerns were heightened after the 2016 Havelock North gastro outbreak.