The scheme proposes to irrigate 40,000ha from the Waitaki River.
Hunter Downs Irrigation chairman Andrew Fraser said its technical and economic feasibility had been confirmed with a second capital call going out before the end of this month.
The go-ahead followed costings and investigations by Hunter Downs Development Company (HDDCL) that indicated the scheme was viable.
“With these recent reports we now know there are no major impediments to proceeding and that many South Canterbury land uses will be able to make irrigation work,” Fraser said.
While the costs were at the higher end of the spectrum they would be affordable for many farming types.
The preferred design incorporates water being diverted from the Waitaki River at the Morvern Glenavy irrigation scheme intake and fed into a piped network.
Concept designs were priced at $313m and $357m, equating to $9700 to $11,500 a hectare.
“We think we’ll attract strong support as this is a great scheme and it’s also a once in a generation opportunity for many of our farmers to access reliable water.”
It was likely $3000 to $4500/ha could provide the company with the equity needed to support external debt.
The actual final cost to farmers who participated would come down to how the scheme was financed, the initial uptake and funding sources among other factors.
“What HDDCL has done at this point is identify and quantify the known risks as much as possible and try and reduce these,” Fraser said.
The timeline for delivering water had been brought forward and with strong shareholder support and other requirements being met, construction could start late 2016 with first water coming on stream in September 2018 and the scheme complete by later 2019.
