Irrigators support regional proposal

Backers of Canterbury's highest profile irrigation schemes are supporting a new management plan for the region's water.

Central Plains Water (CPW) and Hurunui Water Project (HWP) plan to irrigate more than 100,000 hectares of Canterbury farmland, boosting irrigated land in the region to 600,000ha.

The areas covered by both schemes were identified as suitable for infrastructure development in the draft Canterbury water management strategy, which was released last week.

HWP's project manager Amanda Loeffen said a global scheme to manage water allocation, suggested in the draft strategy, fitted with her company's aims.

She supported the idea of breaking the region into 10 water "zones" run by local committees, which she said might avoid costly legal appeals.

"If we could actually sit down and talk to all the stakeholders ... at the first stages of the project ... that would suit everybody."

The strategy proposed the creation of a public-private body to design, build, finance and operate new water storage and distribution in the region.

"We don't have any problem with that at all," she said.

"It was never our desire to own anything the farmers are only interested in water for irrigation, they don't mind who pays for it at what stages."

CPW chairman Pat Morrison said the central plains scheme could feed into a broader water management programme "in 20 or 30 years time".

"There's no reasons why not in fact it would be very sensible to do so."

CPW "have to" pursue their own scheme in the meantime, he said.

"We have spent nearly $10 million of our shareholders' funds going through this long, expensive, arduous and complicated RMA [Resource Management Act] process."

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