Reasons given for doubts over water plan

The Central Plains Water (CPW) scheme commissioners say water-storage plans are "unsustainable".

Under the controversial irrigation proposal, a 55 metre-high dam was planned for the Waianiwaniwa Valley, about 60 kilometres west of Christchurch, creating a 2km-long lake containing up to 280 million cubic metres of water.

The commissioners signalled in April that they would "most likely" reject the dam and reservoir, and yesterday they outlined their reasons.

They raised doubts about the economic benefits of the scheme and whether a dam and reservoir were necessary. "It seems to us that there is an element of the tail wagging the dog."

Significant environmental effects were not able to be mitigated, the commissioners said.

Of particular concern was an intake in the Waimakariri Gorge "an outstanding landscape" and the destruction of a mudfish habitat and a rare peat bog.

"The storage as currently proposed by CPW is unsustainable," they said.

There were also reservations over whether CPW had, until prompted, given adequate consideration to alternatives.

About 45 residents of the valley would be forced to move should the plan go ahead. Only one landowner supported the scheme.

The commissioners said the reservoir was not of national importance and questioned if it was even of regional importance.

"The difficulty which CPW faces is that those who would benefit are not those who would suffer the adverse effects," they said. Harvesting water was a worthy objective, but the scheme was not a community project.

A strong sense of attachment to the land by landowners and their families was an integral part of the social and cultural fabric of the valley and the wellbeing of its residents, they said.

"Except for the very few who may be happy to move on if the price is right, the remainder would, in effect, be leaving the land and the community which they have had attachments with for many years (and in some cases generations) in circumstances where they have little, if any, choice."

Malvern Hills Protection Society secretary Liz Weir said the commissioners had listened to the affected landowners at Coalgate, who would have lived in the shadow of the dam, and in the Waianiwaniwa Valley.

"It isn't over till we have the final decision about everything."

The commissioners urged CPW to formally withdraw part of its notice of requirement or declare its intentions to affected landowners "as soon as possible".

Central Plains Water Trust chairman Doug Marsh declined to comment.

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