Friday, March 29, 2024

Water scheme lives on

Avatar photo
Despite falling short on delivering water it’s not all doom and gloom for North Canterbury’s Hurunui Water Project, chief executive Chris Pile says. The proposed HWP irrigation scheme fell short on farmer uptake, receiving applications for just 5200 hectares when it closed its water rights offer in September.  
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Shareholders had earlier indicated demand to irrigate up to 17,500ha and on that basis the HWP scheme was designed using on-plains storage.

Given the shortfall the scheme will no longer proceed but neighbouring Amuri Irrigation Company (AIC) has come to the rescue, at least for some farmers.

AIC made an offer to purchase the resource consents held by HWP and shareholders at a special meeting have unanimously voted to accept the offer.

Pile said the unanimous support shown by shareholders is pleasing.

“I’m not disappointed, this is an outcome that creates opportunity that HWP doesn’t have on its own.

“At the end of the day it’s about the best mechanism that can get water to farmers and that’s the mechanism that HWP didn’t get,” he said.

While both HWP and AIC are working with urgency to complete the work required to complete the consent transfer process, Pile said the majority of the work is now happening on the Amuri side of the fence.

HWP’s proposed scheme was to take in 21,000ha.

“If we had got the necessary uptake it would have been a viable scheme but the lower uptake makes the Amuri proposal viable with the combination of HWP and AIC consents.”

The HWP scheme was to receive Crown Irrigation funding but the Government pulled the plug on that scheme in April this year and that’s contributed to leaving HWP high and dry.

AIC irrigates 28,000ha of land in the Amuri Basin taking water from both the Hurunui and Waiau Rivers.

In October last year the company commissioned an $87m pipe upgrade from its open canal network.

AIC chief executive Andrew Barton said the company recognised the strong desire for irrigation to be delivered to farmers south of the Hurunui River, an area that has suffered from the impacts of drought over recent years.

He said AIC had two key points of differences from HWP.

“We will do a smaller stage one, 21,000ha in one hit is challenging, and being able to deliver water more cheaply without storage infrastructure costs we expect will attract higher uptake for more reliable water.”

AIC will utilise existing infrastructure and the pipeline upgrade and as well it has several schemes in its portfolio allowing it to play a bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

“If we can pump into the (Hurunui-fed) Balmoral scheme that will free up water that can be used from the Hurunui and use Waiau water to free up Hurunui water.

“It’s all dependent on the consent transfer but if we can use it all then we save on the expense of water storage.

“That was a factor in the cost of their (HWP) scheme and a factor in their end result.”

Barton said it came down to lowering costs.

“If we can’t operate it cheaper we won’t make it either but with the smaller scheme and utilising water without storage we are saving costs.”

A stage two could look at expanding into the Scargill Valley if consents can be obtained.

While he’s hopeful the consent transfer process can be completed by the end of the year, he’s realistic.

“All we want for Christmas… but realistically it will probably be in the first quarter of next year.”

Once finalised AIC will engage with farmers in the area to reassess their appetite for irrigation at the lower price while working to the same operating schedule as HWP proposed – October 2021.

Barton said AIC has been working with HWP for some time as it proposed to take water north of the Hurunui River through AIC’s intake.

“So we have been engaged with HWP and we are shareholders, we understand their proposal and the challenges they faced.”

HWP has a long history going back 15 years with an ambitious, but controversial, plan for large scale irrigation based on a dam on the Hurunui.

It was progressively revised over the years to irrigate up to 21,000ha from a storage pond fed by high-flow Hurunui water.

Amuri goes back to the 1950s when a group of 68 Amuri Federated Farmers signed a petition to the Minister of Works asking for an irrigation survey in their district, which was carried out in 1952.

It wasn’t until 1973 that Government irrigation policy allowed the scheme to move from paper onto the ground. 

When irrigation was first mooted it was seen as an insurance tool against extreme weather but it’s now used as a management tool by its 131 shareholders to ensure maximum efficiency of land and pasture.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading